Mumtaz Bhutto's son describes Sindh LG polls a cruel joke.

KARACHI -- Sardar Ameer Buksh Bhutto, a noted politician of Sindh and son of Mumtaz Bhutto, said on Tuesday that the first phase of the local bodies elections in Sindh was a cruel joke perpetrated upon the people of Sindh.

"This was not an election in any shape or form. It was a selection. There were not even the faintest signs or pretence of fairness and impartiality in the process. Everyone from the DRO's and RO's to the polling station staff were the Sindh government's appointed faithful servants who were under instructions to facilitate the victory of PPP candidates at all costs and they obediently discharged their duties without any shame or regard for law," Bhutto alleged in a statement. He said that the rigging began even before polling day as our candidate for the post of chairman of Warisdino Macho Union Council in Ratodero Tehsil was denied the opportunity to contest by excluding his name from the ballot paper because his vice chairman candidate had retired earlier, even though the Sukkur bench of the Sindh High Court had ruled that this would not disqualify the chairman. Bhutto further alleged that there was open rigging on polling day before the eyes of the polling station staff as PPP polling agents and workers stamped ballot papers. "Even a PPP MNA joined in an effort to avoid defeat in his home polling station. Instead of stopping them, the polling station staff too brazenly started stamping...