BAHAWALPUR: Many runners-up in the general election, most of them backed by the PTI, have announced moving courts and election tribunal against the polling results, alleging that the election in their constituencies was rigged.

In Bahawalpur, Samiullah Chaudhry, the PTI-backed candidate for the national assembly, said the PTI’s lawyer wing was busy drafting petitions against rigging in the election to be filed in the court by Monday. He alleged that the returning officers (ROs) tampered with Form 47 in which the numbers of votes of the PML-N candidates were increased.

The ROs in Bahawalpur district announced that the PML-N bagged four national assembly seats out of total five while one went to the PML-Q. At this, the PTI Bahawalpur defeated candidates announced that they were preparing to challenge the ROs’ results.

Samiullah Chaudhry alleged that he had got the Form 45 issued by the presiding officers of 392 polling stations of NA-168 in which except 10 polling stations, he was leading in all other polling stations. He claimed that the same was the case with other candidates of PP-253 and PP-254 Asghar Joyia and Ahmed Usman Channar, respectively.

The PTI’s Kanwal Shozeb and Bahawal Abbas Abbasi were also backed by the PTI.

DERA GHAZI KHAN: The Dera Ghazi Khan District Bar Association has rejected results of provincial and national assemblies’ constituencies and announced to challenge them before the court.

DBA President Tariq Khan Gurmani advocate said five members of the bar were taking part in the election on provincial and national assembly seats of Dera Ghazi Khan, namely Farhat Abbas Lound, Fahim Changwani, Malik Iqbal Saqib, Mohyiddin Khosa and Sajjad Chheena. According to their Forms 45, they were leading in the elections and that the bar would move the court against rigged election results.

The Jamaat-i-Islami candidate on NA-185, Sheikh Usman Farooq, also rejected the result of NA-185.

SAHIWAL: A number of PTI-backed defeated candidates have announced to move the higher courts for recount of their election results based on Form 45 in districts of Pakpattan and Sahiwal.

Talking to the media, they demanded the chief justice to take suo motu notice of the rigging.

Nasir Sajad, the runner-up candidate from the PTI, claimed that his application for recount of votes was rejected by RO of PP-198.

Talking to Dawn, he said he had requested the RO to hold Form 48 as a final count of his result because he had proof of the difference in votes mentioned in Form 45 issued by the presiding officers of the polling stations and Form 47 issued by the RO. Nasir Sajad had lost the election to Pir Walayat Shah Khagga of the PML-N with a 6,980 votes margin. He alleged that his votes were shifted to his opponent by the RO.

Khizer Hayat, who was contesting as an independent from PP-198, Waheed Asger, the runner-up from PP-202, Rana Amir Shahzad, the PTI-backed candidate from NA-141, and Ahmed Yar Dhako also announced moving the election tribunal for recount of votes.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2024