Vindicted: NADRA report backs PTI’s stance, says Mazari

Claims entire nation knows votes were cast on fake CNICs

ISLAMABAD: The forensic report of the National Database & Registration Authority (NADRA) on the NA-122 (Lahore-V) constituency supports the allegation of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) that the 2013 general elections were rigged, the party said in a statement issued on Saturday.

PTI Chairman Imran Khan had lost the constituency to National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

The NADRA report, which claimed that only 73,478 of the total 184,151 votes cast in NA-122 during the 2013 elections could be verified, was submitted to the election tribunal days after re-polling was ordered in the NA-125 (Lahore-VIII) constituency, where former railways minister Khawaja Saad Rafique was disqualified.

“The NADRA report endorses our point of view on rigging in the elections,” PTI Information Secretary Shireen Mazari said. “We have been saying from day one that Ayaz Sadiq’s mandate is fake.” She claimed that the entire nation was now aware that the votes were cast on fake CNICs.

Regarding the contents of the report, Mazari said 136,000 votes could not be verified, ‘which speaks volumes about the rigging’. “Massive rigging in the elections has been exposed.”

Commenting on the report in the social media, the party’s chief said NADRA had established discrepancies and proved massive rigging, calling into question the entire results of NA-122.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 10^th, 2015.