Poll supervisor says ECP did not give him any action plan. PHOTO: ECP.GOV.PK
Polling supervisor of the National Assembly constituency won by ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Khwaja Saad Rafique has admitted he received 50,000 extra ballot papers more than his demand.
The NA-125 returning officer (RO) had asked the election commission for 500,000 papers – over 70,000 more than the registered voter count of 429,115. The number of papers he received for 2013 general elections was 550,000.
On Thursday, Khalid Mahmood Bhatti, the RO of NA-125, told the inquiry commission investigating vote fraud claims in the previous general elections that he had sent a requisition
to print 500,000 ballot papers. He was given 550,000 papers by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) without any reason.
He added that no action plan of ECP was given to him regarding the consolidation of election results as well as printing of ballot papers.
The three-judge commission headed by Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk was told that the RO had retained 128,000 extra ballot papers himself. Bhatti admitted that 65 Form-15 were still missing. He said Form-14 were available at the time of the consolidation of elections result, but Form-15 were not present.
He claimed that 128,000 extra ballot papers were fully accounted for and were deposited with the treasury, adding that he himself formed the polling schemes. He also admitted that he did not note the serial numbers of the bags of extra ballot papers, which he retained himself.
CJP Mulk did not allow PTI’s counsel Abdul Hafiz Pirzada to cross examine the RO, saying the commission had called the ROs for a particular purpose to know about the printing of excess ballot papers.
Saad Rafiq had secured 123,416 votes in the elections while the runner-up, Hamid Khan, got 84,495 votes.
More confessions
The RO of NA-119, Sajjad Hussain, also admitted he asked the ECP for extra ballot papers. The total votes in his constituency were 305,570 while 368,000 papers were printed. The RO printed the polling scheme himself.
He said the Provincial Election Commission Punjab also did not raise any objection over the requisition of ballot papers. He added that he had deposited all the election material, including the extra ballot papers, in the treasury.
Meanwhile, the commission also issued notices to the counsel for Jamaat-i- Islami and Muhajir Qaumi Movement (Haqiqi) over Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) plea for cross examination of their witnesses.
The application moved by Mian Atiq Mir states the MQM vehemently denied all adverse allegations levelled by the witnesses against the party.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 19th, 2015.
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