In Bajaur Agency, losing PPP, PTI, JI candidates rise against rigging

Protesters accuse the PA, security forces of ‘assisting’ the PML-N candidate’s win.

KHAR: Candidates from NA-43 and NA-44 who faced defeat on Election Day protested in Bajaur Agency on Monday, accusing the political administration and security forces of poll rigging.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate from NA-44 Shahabud Din Khan, and independent candidate from NA-43 Haji Bismillah won the elections. Bismillah is Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Governor Shaukatullah Khan’s father.

Losing candidates of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and their supporters participated in the protest. They demanded the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) conduct elections again in the constituency.

The demonstrators were led by JI’s NA-43 and 44 candidates Sahibzada Haroon Rasheed and Sardar Khan, PTI candidates Guldad Khan and Zafar Khan. PPP supporters also participated in the rally which headed from the agency’s headquarters office to the bazaar.

Addressing the protesters, Sardar Khan said they will not accept the election result. He accused security forces and political administration officials of removing ballot boxes from polling stations in Ghar Shamozai and counting them in Civil Colony, where candidates were not allowed to enter. Ghar Shamozai is a JI stronghold.

PTI was among the strongest partes in NA-44 and the political administration helped PML-N’s Shahabuddin to win NA-44, alleged Guldad Khan.

Sahibzada Haroon insisted he was winning when the tally started but “the political administration officials and security forces turned the tables on him as they favoured Haji Bismillah.”

“Governor Shaukatullah Khan engaged in pre-poll rigging by launching development projects in the area and distributed money to help his father,” alleged Haroon, “but no one took action against him.”

Sardar said the “worst” rigging occurred at polling stations in Lagharai, where Haji  Bismillah was in a weaker position, but the “government machinery assisted Bismillah’s win since he was the governor’s father.”

Protestors and the candidates further alleged party activists were tortured by security forces during the elections and were not allowed to cast their votes. They threatened to take the matter to the courts if polls did not take place again.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 14^th, 2013.