Gandapur charged for interrupting voting process

Minister pleads innocence, next hearing of case fixed for February 14, 2016

DI KHAN: Charges were brought against K-P Minister for Revenue Ali Amin Gandapur  for disrupting the polling process in Hemath Adda during local government elections on May 29, 2015.

The minister appeared before judicial magistrate Shah Faisal, and was represented by his advocate Ghulam Muhammad. Gandapur refused to accept the charges and pleaded his innocence. The next hearing of the case has been fixed for February 14, 2016.

In the disputed constituency, Malik Qayum Asim from Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Fakhruddin were contesting elections against each other. According to police, vote count was under way in Hemath Adda polling station when Gandapur, his brother Umar (a candidate for tehsil nazim) and his armed supporters arrived on the scene, picked up the ballot boxes and took off with them in the minister’s car.

On May 29, 2015, Cantt SHO Saifur Rehman registered an FIR in Saddar police station alleging the minister intervened in the election process. He also registered an FIR against his brother Umar and their security guards under various sections of the Pakistan Penal Code, including assaulting a public servant to deter him from his duties.