Credibility of general elections is lost: Aitzaz

Credibility of the general elections has been lost after the statement of the interior minister, as poll results are being questioned even after the passage of seven months, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Aitzaz Ahsan said on Friday.

Addressing a press conference outside the Parliament House, Aitzaz said, “Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Thursday admitted in parliament that 60,000 to 70,000 votes in every constituency of the country cannot be verified. Admittance of this reality by the interior minister has completely harmed the credibility of the general elections, while the Punjab government is bringing changes in ballot papers and thumb verification papers to stop NADRA from verifying the authenticity of the voters.”

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) senator also said the Punjab government, by not implementing the orders of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), was not providing the election record of two constituencies — National Assembly (NA) 118 and NA 139.

Aitzaz said, PPP candidates Chaudry Manzoor Ahmed (NA-139) and Bushra Aitzaz (NA-118) had submitted applications for provision of record several times but the Punjab government was creating hurdles.

He said the PPP had filed applications in the ECP asking for the records of NA-118, NA-139, NA-258 and NA-259 since four months, but not providing the record had raised the threat of changing it.

“Another application has been also submitted before the chief election commissioner (CEC), because seven months have passed but results of the general elections are still considered suspicious,” he said.