Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) will stage a protest demonstration outside the office of provincial election commission in Lahore today (Thursday) against alleged rigging in the recently held general elections, as announced by the president of MMA Punjab chapter and provincial Amir of Jamaat-e-Islami Mian Maqsood Ahmed while addressing a press conference on Wednesday. Criticising the election procedure, he said that pre-poll and after poll rigging could be seen in this election in which the mandate of people was stolen just to give favour to one political party. “As many as 15 years were spent to create a new party and electables were also asked to join that party just to strengthen it and even the process of ticket awarding in the party was also patronised,” he said, while adding that it is not good for the sovereignty of the country that there is an impression that our state institutions were involved in the electoral process. Around 40 to 70 percent constituencies were changed through the process of delimitation and it is tantamount to pre-poll rigging on the part of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), Mian Maqsood Ahmed, who is also Amir of JI Punjab chapter. “Why ECP is still silent over the campaign expenses of political parties as everyone have seen that they spent billions during their election campaigns despite the fact that the rules of ECP do not allow them to do so,” he said. He further added that religious parties got over 7.6 million votes and it is also condemnable that a large number of voters were rejected in the counting process and most of the votes were rejected through a conspiracy by double-stamping the ballot papers. Over 9 million votes were rejected in Punjab only while 1678,000 votes were rejected in the whole country, he added. “It was just selection, not an election that is an insult of the people’s mandate,” he said, while adding that the Punjab chapter of MMA would hold a peaceful protest demonstration outside the office of provincial election commissioner today. Allama Syed Sibtain Sabzwari of Shia Ulema Council, Dr Javed Akhtar of JUI-F and a large number of religio-political leaders were also present on the occasion. It is pertinent to mention that opposition parties also staged protest in Islamabad outside the office of ECP against the rigging in elections in which MMA President Maulana Fazlur Rehman, former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gillani, Raja Zafarul Haq and Mehmood Khan Achakzai also participated. Published in Daily Times, August 9th 2018.