National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq has said that the statement of former Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) CEO, Mudassar Rizvi was a blatant concealment of facts, and was meant to malign him over the alleged rigging during the 2013 general elections.
In a letter on Wednesday, the speaker drew the attention of the honourable Inquiry commission that Rizvi in a TV talk shows stated that in two polling stations of his constituency NA-122, more than 170.88 per cent and 192 per cent votes had been polled. He said that the FAFEN report and Rizvi’s statement formed the basis of the Election Petition filed by his opponent against him.
The speaker said the actual position was that the polling scheme of the 2013 elections and form-16 as attested by the Election Commission stated that in PS-83, at the Lahore college for women, there were 1,493 registered voters, from which Imran Khan got 491 votes. Furthermore, the speaker informed that he got 314 out of the 830 votes polled and the percentage of votes polled was 55.59. In the second PS 216 at MC Junior Model School, of the 1144 registered voters, 576 were polled and Imran Khan got 300 votes, he himself polled 267 showing a percentage of 50.34.
Sardar Ayaz Sadiq pointed out that the stated chart clearly indicates that the claim made by M/s FAFEN was misleading, false, erroneous and indeed malicious. He said when this error was pointed out to Rizvi in a telephonic conversation soon after the elections, not only did he admit this mistake but informed him that his organisation had also issued a press release admitting the fault, and would be withdrawing its observations.
