Disruption of polling: Presiding officer issued show-cause notice

Polling was suspended for nearly half-an-hour due to PTI chief Imran Khan’s presence, officer admits lapse.

ISLAMABAD: The presiding officer of Mohra Noor polling station has admitted that problems at the polling station after PTI chief Imran Khan went there to vote were a security lapse due to low deployment of police.

Khan was flanked by dozens of party activists and flashing cameras when he went to the polling station in UC-23 to cast his vote on November 30.

Polling was suspended for half-an-hour, from his arrival till the time he left Islamabad Model School for Boys after addressing the media.

Assistant Commissioner Capt (retd) Waqas Rashid, who was the returning officer, has served a show-cause notice to presiding officer Abdul Rehman, asking him to explain the “disorderly conduct exhibited at the polling station under his supervision”.

In the notice served on December 2, it is mentioned that Khan was accompanied by a huge crowd of party workers, which could have led to a security breach.

The presiding officer admitted to the lapse, saying “primarily it was due to less deployment of police at the polling station to control the crowd.”

While regretting inconvenience caused to voters, PTI spokesperson Naeemul Haq said the party and its chairman were against the prevailing culture of protocol in other political parties.

He said Khan went to the polling station as an ordinary citizen and “it was a coincidence that party voters and workers surrounded him and chanted slogans. It was never planned. Khan had left home alone to cast vote,” Haq said.

But his claim contradicts by a text message sent by the PTI media wing the night before the election. The message to media members explicitly states that Imran Khan would go to the polling station at 10:30am and would give a media talk after voting.

PTI MNA Asam Umar asked if the ECP has ever taken notice of such situations in the past, when voting was suspended when heads of other parties went to cast their votes. He accused the ECP of singling out PTI.

A similar situation occurred in Lahore on October 31, when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif cast his vote in Sari Sultan. Voters queued outside the polling station were dispersed before his arrival and polling was suspended until he voted and left. On the same day in Larkana, voters were forced to leave a polling station to make way for PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 4^th, 2015.