- Enquiry commission completes vote recounting in NA-122, will submit report to election tribunal next week
- Ayaz Sadiq’s lawyer says recount reaffirms PML-N candidate’s victory with additional 135 votes, Imran Khan’s counsel says recount ‘revealed massive rigging’
An enquiry commission on Saturday completed the process of vote recount in NA-122 constituency in Lahore. The report would be submitted to the election tribunal next week.
Lawyers of both Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq were present as the votes were recounted.
After the recount, Sadiq’s lawyer said that the recount affirmed the speaker’s victory in the constituency whereas Khan’s lawyer claimed that the recount has “revealed massive rigging”.
“No irregularity was found during the inspection of 284 polling stations record of NA-122,” said Dr Ali Ayaz Sadiq who represented National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq in the scrutiny process.
Talking to media after the record of NA-122 was completely inspected, Ali said Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Sadiq’s votes have increased by 135, and he now leads with 9,007 votes against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan.
Ali said all rigging allegations levelled by Khan were proved baseless.
Also talking to media, Punjab Government Spokesman Zaeem Qadri said, “PTI chief Imran Khan only accepts court’s verdicts which are in his favour.”
To a question regarding “missing signatures” on some counterfoils, Colonel (r) Muhammad Mubashir said that all such votes were valid as they had thumb impressions as well as identity card numbers of voters.
On the orders of election tribunal Judge Kazim Malik, the enquiry commission’s chairman retired sessions judge Ghulam Hussain Awan completed the procedure of recounting and verification of votes in NA-122 within 13 days.
According to the sources in the investigative team, PML-N’s candidate Sadiq’s total vote count was increased by 134, taking his lead to 9,006 from 8,872 after the record of 284 polling stations was verified. Voters’ thumb impressions and national identity cards were also present in the counterfoil.
Earlier, PTI’s Hamid Khan on May 15 called for re-elections on two NA seats of Lahore, NA-125 and NA-122, alleging that massive vote-rigging was carried out in the city.
An election tribunal comprising Kazim Ali Malik had ordered inspection of NA-122 record on an application of PTI chief Khan who had challenged the election of Sadiq from the constituency.
Malik had given an 18-page verdict ordering the enquiry commission to open up voting bags in NA-122 and recount the votes and also see how many votes had been discarded.
He had also ordered the commission to check how many counterfoils did not have NIC numbers and how many votes had thumb impression on them
The counterfeits with thumb impressions are the main problem. The ID card numbers could have been written there later onafter the election was completed. Knowing PML(n) they are capable of doing anything.
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