Speaker’s constituency: ECP allows PTI access to polls record

Imran Khan had lost NA-122 to NA Speaker Ayaz Sadiq.

ISLAMABAD: Election authorities have allowed Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to inspect the election record of NA-122 (Lahore-V), the constituency from where National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq had won the May 11, 2013 parliamentary elections.

NA-122 is one of the four constituencies where the PTI wanted a vote audit in its initial demands before it launched the ongoing protest sit-in in the federal capital.

The ECP, in its meeting on Wednesday, decided to allow Imran’s party to inspect the vote record of the constituency under the supervision of its provincial election commissioner. The commission had earlier allowed the same but the NA speaker had moved to Lahore High Court (LHC) against the decision.

However, the LHC recently rejected the speaker’s plea and directed that the record might be opened under the supervision of ECP officials and not the judicial officers who had acted as returning officers in the 2013 elections.

The PTI chief, who had won the elections from four other constituencies, had lost NA-122 to Ayaz Sadiq, who was contesting the election on the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s ticket.

It is not clear when the record will be opened for Imran by Mehboob Anwar, the provincial election commissioner Punjab, against whom the PTI has already raised serious allegations.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 18^th, 2014.