PTI and PML-N seek recounts at NA-125, NA-126

Saad Rafique says PTI should accept its defeat in the constituency rather than make accusations.

LAHORE:

Candidates of the Muslim League-Nawaz and the Tehreek-i-Insaaf are to appear before returning officers today to respond to tit-for-tat allegations of rigging made by the two parties against each other.

On Monday, Returning Officer Javedul Hassan Chishti issued notice to the PTI’s Shafqat Mehmood (the winner at NA-126), Mehmoodur Rasheed (PP-150) and Murad Ras (PP-151) for May 14, on the complaint of the losing PML-N candidates Khawaja Ahmed Hassaan (NA-126), Khawaja Salman Rafique (PP-150) and Syed Tauseef Shah (PP-151).

Returning Officer Khalid Mehmood Bhatti issued notice to the PML-N’s Khawaja Saad Rafique (winner at NA-125), Mian Naseer (PP-155) and Yasin Sohail (PP-156) for May 14, on the complaint of losing PTI candidates Hamid Khan (NA-126), Hafiz Farhat Abbas (PP-155) and Ahsan Rasheed (PP-156).

In both complaints, the losing candidates accused the winners of rigging and demanded a recount of the votes. Supporters of both parties also held protests against the alleged rigging incidents in parts of Lahore on Monday, though the PTI protests were much larger.

NA-125 complaint

Hamid Khan of PTI alleged that at NA-125, the PML-N candidates and their agents, “in a systematic, deliberate and pre-planned scheme ... with the active connivance and support of presiding officers and the police”, cast bogus votes and tampered with ballot boxes and ballot papers.

PTI polling agents were threatened, removed from polling stations and restrained from attending the counting of votes by presiding officers, said the complainant. The PML-N candidates had violated numerous provisions of the Representation of the People Act of 1976, he said.

Hamid Khan sought a recount of the votes and verification of the counts furnished by the presiding officer.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Saad Rafique said that the PTI should accept its defeat in the constituency rather than make accusations aimed at casting doubt on the PML-N mandate. He said that if the PTI chief could be defeated in Lahore, it was no surprise that he should defeat Hamid Khan.

NA-126

Meanwhile the losing PML-N candidates at NA-126 alleged in their complaint that they had reported instances of rigging at specific polling stations to the presiding officers, but they had been ignored.

At the Model Town Government Girls High School in E Block, the presiding officer’s husband had been inside the polling station and had rigged the voting in favour of the PTI candidate, the complainants alleged.

They said that Khawaja Usman, brother of Salman Rafique (and Saad Rafique), had caught a former union council nazim named Haji Fayyaz Ahmad holding fake ballot papers. They said that Fayyaz Ahmad had been handed over to the police, but no action had been taken against him.

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

Correction: An earlier version of the article incorrectly stated that Khawaja Saad Rafique won from NA-126 instead of NA-125. The error has been rectified.