- NADRA report says 280 out of 1,254 votes in NA-125 found fake, majority of votes could not be verified
- A single person casted six votes in PS-6 while 12 people at PS-98 casted their votes twice
The National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has confirmed irregularities in the National Assembly constituency NA-125, Lahore-VIII held by Railways Minister Khwaja Saad Rafique.
In a 125-page NADRA report on six polling stations of NA-125 issued Saturday, it has been found that several votes were casted on fake national identity cards (CNICs), due to which the thumb impressions on the votes could not be verified while CNIC numbers found in the counterfoils also turned out to be bogus.
The report stated that a majority of votes in all the investigated polling stations could not be verified, while at some places, such as PS-6, up to six votes were casted by a single person.
As many as 280 votes out of 1,254 votes checked have been found to be fake while 12 people at PS-98 have been reported to have casted their votes twice.
The polling stations that were checked by NADRA included PS-110, PS-107, PS-98, PS-6 and PS-5.
Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had won the election in this constituency in May 2013 while Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Hamid Ali Khan had stood runner-up and had challenged the decision on this seat in the election tribunal.
While commenting on the NADRA report on NA-125, Hamid Khan said that PTI has been reiterating from the first day that the elections in 2013 were massively rigged. He said that the points raised by PTI have been proven right.
“The NADRA report shows that Saad Rafique stole the elections,” he said.
Meanwhile, former ECP secretary Kanwar Dilshad has said that following the NADRA’s report, Khwaja Saad Rafique can be declared ‘ineligible’. He added that the report has reaffirmed Imran Khan’s demand to open four constituencies.