PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Taimur Saleem Jhagra on Saturday claimed that he had received an envelope with “original” Form 45 containing the initial results of the Feb 8 general election in his constituency of PK-79 in the provincial capital.

“The Form 45 that I received from an unidentified person was recovered from a garbage site and sent to my home by the Pakistan Post service. The form was sealed by the Election Commission of Pakistan over the alleged poll rigging,” the PTI leader told a news conference here.

Mr Jhagra, who contested the Feb 8 election in that constituency and was declared an unsuccessful candidate, said the act of disposing of Form 45 as garbage confirmed his party’s claims of massive rigging in polls to one national and eight provincial assembly seats in Peshawar.

“The recovery of this Form 45 proved that election results from these constituencies were changed after the electoral exercise,” he said.

Jhagra says will produce document before poll tribunal as rigging evidence

Mr Jhagra, a former finance and health minister in the province, wondered why the PTI’s provincial government hadn’t acted against the district returning officer and returning officers for “rigging elections to deprive the party of one national and eight provincial assembly seats.”

He said the provincial government should have taken action against the DRO and ROs on time as they deprived Peshawarites of their “genuine leadership under a conspiracy.”

The PTI leader also criticised the ECP for not acting against Peshawar’s deputy commissioner and several assistant commissioners, who served in the last elections as the DRO and ROs respectively.

Waving Form 45, he said he would produce the document before the election tribunal as evidence of poll rigging as it was set to start proceedings.

Mr Jhagra said the judiciary shouldn’t delay the dispensation of justice to the PTI over election rigging.

“The Election Commission of Pakistan stole people’s mandate for us to represent them in assemblies,” he said.

The PTI candidate said the DC of Peshawar and ROs should have been removed from their respective positions over their role in poll rigging.

“How will they serve people honestly after rigging elections so openly?”

Mr Jhagra said he was ready to furnish the recovered Form 45 for any inquiry and had no issues if it was sent to the lab for a forensic examination.

PTI leader and former provincial higher education minister Kamran Bangash, who was also in attendance, said the recovery of Form 45 from a dumping site was reported to the Chamkani police station.

He said the development had proved poll rigging, as claimed by the PTI.

“Results of elections to one national and eight provincial assembly seats in Peshawar were not declared according to the original Form 45, and they’ve been changed in Form 47 to favour our opponents,” he insisted.

Mr Bangash, who contested the election in PK-82, said he got 11 votes at one of the polling stations adjacent to his home, though his family had 25 voters, proving that the results were changed for the victory of his opponent.

He said he polled just two votes at another polling station, where 45 office-bearers of the PTI were registered as voters.

The PTI leader claimed that the returning officer uploaded the “fudged” Form 45 of 51 polling stations in his constituency.

PTI leader Engineer Hamidul Haq and other PTI candidates, who were also present on the occasion, claimed the ECP “dishonestly” declared them poll losers.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2024