K-P spokesperson Shah Farman urges ECP, NAB to take notice of state resources being used. PHOTO: EXPRESS
Addressing a news conference at the Peshawar Press Club on Sunday, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government spokesperson and senior Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shah Farman claimed that the PML-N was using resources of the federal government to manipulate the NA-4 by-polls. “The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and National Accountability Bureau (NAB) should take notice of it [pre-poll rigging] as free and fair elections cannot be held,” he said.
Farman added that the PML-N candidate Nasir Muszai is a member of the board of directors of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO) and was using resources of the power utility to influence the election. “We paid PESCO for installing transformers and electric poles in 2016, but they have yet to be installed. Now, PESCO is issuing transformers and electric poles without tenders in areas falling within the NA-4 constituency,” he said while detailing the nature of the alleged pre-poll rigging.
He added that the PML-N provincial leadership had announced to supply gas to five union councils of Koh-e-Daman area – which too falls within the NA-4 constituency – and is another attempt to influence the elections.
“The federal government had been against supplying gas to these five union councils and had stalled the matter in litigation for four years, but now, when elections are close, they have announced to provide gas to these union councils,” he complained. Asked about the PTI’s candidate for NA-4, Farman said that they have received six applications for the party ticket. PTI chairman Imran Khan, along with other party leaders, would select the candidate for the ticket in a meeting in Islamabad on Monday.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 18th, 2017.
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