May 11 elections: 658 voters cast multiple votes in NA-258, says Nadra

Pakistan Peoples Party’s Raja Abdur Razzaq had challenged the earlier results of NA-258.

KARACHI:

The National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) informed an election tribunal on Saturday that 658 voters had cast more than one ballot in a Karachi constituency, NA-258, in the May 11 general elections.

“One voter, named Muhammad Saleh, had cast eight votes on one national identity card (NIC), while another male voter polled on behalf of female voters,” revealed the report submitted by Nadra officials in response to the order passed by the tribunal.

The election tribunal – headed by Justice (retd) Zafar Ahmed Khan Sherwani – had ordered Nadra on August 1 to verify the thumb impressions of the voters from 84 polling stations of the constituency.



Pakistan Peoples Party’s Raja Abdur Razzaq had challenged the results of NA-258, alleging that his rival candidate, Abdul Hakim Baloch of the Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz, had rigged the elections. He had pleaded the election tribunal order verification of thumb impressions of the voters.

Nadra, in its report, stated that the number of votes cast in 18 polling stations were less than the number of votes mentioned in the counterfoils, while the number of votes cast in 15 other polling stations was more than those mentioned in the counterfoils. Nadra found that 435 voters, who had cast votes, were not registered in NA-258.

The tribunal provided copies of the report to the petitioner and the respondent for filing their replies or objections by the next date of hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 22^nd, 2013.