ISLAMABAD - The poll rigging complainants have started directly moving the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) as the returning officers concerned mostly continue to reject recounting applications in a surprising development that appears to have further cast the shadows on the elections credibility in the wake of widespread reports of massive rigging in the general elections.
Apparently, feeling the heat of the enormous criticism over poll rigging allegations, the electoral body on Tuesday announced votes re-polling in the three electoral constituencies in Karachi and recounting in a Lodhran constituency. The re-polling would be held on Sunday at the 43 polling stations of National Assembly constituency NA-250 and Sindh Assembly’s constituencies PS-112 Karachi-XXIV and PS-113 Karachi-XXV while the date and time for votes’ recounting in NA-154 Lodhran would be decided by the district returning officer (DRO) concerned, according to an ECP order.
The applications of two senior leaders of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Hamid Khan from NA-125 and Sardar Yaqoob from NA-18, were rejected on Tuesday by the ROs concerned despite that the latter’s application on recounting was earlier accepted and the same was scheduled yesterday (Tuesday).
According to the details, scores of NA-18 constituents were stunned when they gathered outside the office of the constituency’s RO, Additional District and Sessions Judge Aurangzeb Khan Khattak in Abbottabad in connection with the votes recounting, only to learn that the RO had rejected the recounting request after conducting around three-hour hearing.
Earlier on Sunday, Khattak had ordered votes’ recounting in the presence of the NA-18 candidates. Sardar Haider Zaman of Tehreek-e-Sooba Hazara had also joined Yaqoob on Monday through a written application to demand polls’ recounting.
In his application to the RO, Yaqoob had provided details of the five polling stations in NA-18 where the voters’ turnout had exceeded 100 per cent apparently as result of poll rigging while the original turnout in these rural hilly areas of Galiyat, the applicant stated, remains less than 50 per cent. The applicant had also suggested that the initial votes’ recounting be held in the said five polling stations and in case the element of rigging was detected, the recounting could be continued to 135 polling stations of the NA-18. In addition, the Statement of Count (containing votes’ details), as demanded by the candidates, has not been reportedly provided to them. Murtaza Javed Abbasi of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has been unofficially declared as returned candidate for the NA-18 securing 69,532 votes.
Meanwhile, a number of noted politicians including Jehangir Khan Tareen, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Pir Sabir Shah and Omar Ayub visited the ECP on Tuesday and submitted applications for the votes’ recounting in their respective constituencies.
Entertaining Tareen’s application, the ECP instructed the DRO concerned to carry out the recounting of votes in the NA-154 Lodhran. The order on votes’ recounting was unanimously passed by all the four Members Election Commission (MECs), Justice (Retd) Roshan Essani, Justice (Retd) Riaz Kayani, Justice (Retd) Shahzad Akbar Khan and Justice (Retd) Fazl-ur-Rehman.
The PTI’s Jehangir Tareen had lost to Siddique Khan Baloch, an independent candidate, who bagged 86,046 votes. Tareen received 75,814 votes.
Later, talking to journalists during his visit to the ECP, Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q) President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain alleged that PML-N leadership used influence to rig polls in NA-104 to get his brother Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain defeated. “He (Wajahat) was winning with a huge margin till Saturday night but as soon as Nawaz Sharif publicly addressed his supporters, the tables turned and my brother lost in a highly suspicious manner. The entire electoral machinery and bureaucracy aided Sharifs in getting us defeated,” he alleged. Wajahat had got 81,162 votes compared to PML-N’s Nawabzada Mazher Ali who was declared returned candidate for NA-104 with 84,979 votes.
Moreover, the 43 polling stations of NA-250 in Karachi where the re-polling would be held are: polling station number four, seven, 11, 48, 52, 56, 57, 58, 60, 62, 78, 97, 98, 100, 101, 104, 106, 109, 110, 113, 114, 115, 117, 121, 122, 131, 135, 136, 137, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 148, 157, 165, 168, 175, 177, 179 and 180.  The ballot papers for the NA constituency would be coloured white and that of the two Sindh Assembly constituencies would be coloured green for the Sunday polls in Karachi.