Irregularities detected in NA-122 constituency polls: inquiry commission

Election tribunal judge assures of taking action against rigging if findings of report are true

LAHORE: Former sessions judge Ghulam Hussain Awan, who was appointed as head of an inquiry committee formed to probe alleged rigging in 2013's elections, noted certain irregularities in the NA-122 constituency.

As per Awan’s statement, recorded in front of Election Tribunal Lahore Judge Kazim Malik, counterfoils of 30,000 ballot papers were not signed, and ballot papers of different colours and sizes and ballot boxes with broken seals were included in the report.

Earlier, an audit report of the NA-122 constituency revealed 519 discrepancies in the election record, including 23,639 unsigned or unstamped ballot papers and 3,642 invalid ones.



RELATED POST: NA-122 audit: 23,639 votes unsigned or unstamped, says report



A local commission was appointed by the election tribunal to scrutinise the constituency. The commission had said that it found 519 discrepancies from the both sides: the record of PTI chief Iman Khan showed that 275 counterfoils of his votes were without thumb impressions, while 232 counterfoils found in the record of National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq were without thumb impressions.

Judge Kazim said if the findings of the report are true, he would inspect the NA-122 ballots and would take action against rigging in the constituency’s polling stations as per law.

The tribunal judge has summoned 150 witnesses on January 31.