MQM-P claims success of boycott call.

KARACHI -- Claiming the low turnout a 'success' of its narrative, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) on Sunday called the local government (LB) elections in Karachi and Hyderabad a 'failure' to win the people's mandate after the party announced to boycott the electoral process in protest against unjustified delimitation, fake voter list and undercounting of population in the National Census 2017.

Leaders of the MQM-P in a press conference at its temporary headquarters in Bahadurabad reiterated their anger against the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) which 'failed' to play its due role and went 'beyond its constitutional mandate' to allow the elections despite the Sindh government's decision to withdraw notification on delimitation.

Party convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqi, along with Dr Farooq Sattar and Mustafa Kamal, said the MQM's decision to boycott the polls reflected in the turnout and people in the urban Sindh stood firm with that narrative as majority of them decided to stay away from the voting process.

'With this [low] turnout, these elections have already lost their moral value,' he said. 'It would further prove in the days to come that the MQM-P was right and those who contested the polls despite knowing the exploitation, injustice and illegal process of all this exercise would be rejected by the people of Karachi. They in fact have sold out their political future. The people of Karachi would never accept them as their local government representatives.'

Former Karachi mayor Mustafa Kamal explained that the 'gerrymandering' was done to deprive Karachi from 73 union councils (UCs) and any result of voting on the current delimitation would never reflect the true mandate of the city.

'A detailed study suggested that there are total 73...