State of denial: PTI challenges NA-122 results again

Runner-up says his party has evidence to unseat winner

ISLAMABAD:

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) seems to be in a state of denial when it comes to losing an election to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), whether it’s the general election or a by-poll.

PTI’s Aleem Khan, who lost by a narrow margin the NA-122 (Lahore-V) by-election last month to PML-N’s Ayaz Sadiq, now speaker of the National Assembly, approached the top polls supervisory body on Thursday to challenge the result.

Filing an 800-page petition through Advocate Salman Akram Raja, Khan asked the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to declare the by-election null and void.

He accused the ruling party of transferring as many as 22,000 votes out of the constituency without the permission of the voters.

A statement issued by the PTI said 30,500 voters were added or transferred to or deleted from the electoral rolls in the constituency between the 2013 general elections and October 2015. “Only 7,000 new voters came of age and were registered automatically.”

Of the remaining voters, records of only 812 were provided to the PTI by the ECP, which said it was the responsibility of the National Database & Registration Authority, added the statement.

“We have evidence to unseat Ayaz Sadiq,” Khan told the media. Under the 1974 Electoral Rules Act, he said, the polling body should take suo motu notice, dismiss the by-poll’s result and order an inquiry into the complaint.

The party said those responsible should be punished. It claimed it had received reports of voting irregularities, an example of which was “30 to 50 people of a household casting their votes in the by-election”.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27^th,  2015.