LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and runner-up candidate from NA-120 constituency Yasmeen Rashid challenged NA-120 by-poll results in Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), and alleged that systematic manipulation of votes had taken place during the election.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Kulsoom Nawaz had won the NA-120 by-poll by defeating Yasmeen Rashid with a difference of around 15,000 votes on September 17.
It merits mention here that the seat was left vacant after Nawaz Sharif’s disqualification over the Panama Papers case verdict in July this year.
Talking to reporters after filing her petition with ECP, the PTI leader said that her party had filed a plea against untraceable 29,000 votes and Lahore High Court had sought the voters list. However, the ECP had provided an incomplete list on which the PTI protested and demanded that the complete list should be shared with the court.
Yasmeen Rashid said that the ECP had not paid any attention to the matter and had provided incomplete documents a day before the by-poll, adding that after assessment of the list, it was found that 30 per cent of voters were outside the country while as many voters were dead. She also said that some voters were listed twice and all evidence in this regard had been provided to ECP.
She further said that despite objections raised by the PTI polling agents, suspect voters were still allowed to cast their votes, while adding that more than 32 petitions have been filed over violation of ECP code of conduct.
