Staff Reporter
Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Miftah Ismail has requested the chief election com-missioner (CEC) to take emergency steps for taking the custody of the NA-249 by-election record, it was learnt on Sunday.
Miftah Ismail has sought emergency action by CEC to seize sealed ballot papers and other election material used in NA-249 by-polls.
He stated in its plea that the election material should be kept at a secure location until the emergence of the final re-sult of the by-polls.
He demanded CEC to keep the election material on a safe location under the supervision of Rangers or Pakistan Army.
He thanked the Election Com-mission of Pakistan (ECP) for issuing a stay order on the results of NA-249 by-election.
Ismail claimed that the majority of presiding officers (POs) and election staff belong to the Sindh government which illegally supported the provincial government and each political party has registered their complaints against it.
He expressed suspicions over the security of the ballot papers that are currently under the custody of the police forces which is a subordinate department of the Sindh government.
He added that suspicions are prevailing for changes in the ballot papers, counter files, ballot paper accounts and stamped copies of electoral lists.
Earlier on May 1, the Election Commission of Paki-stan (ECP) had issued a stay order on NA-249 by-poll results after Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Miftah Ismail challenged the results.
Other than issuing a stay order, the ECP also set a hearing on the petition of Miftah Ismail for May 04.
However, the election commission had turned down pleas of PTI and PML-N candidates seeking recounting of votes cast in Thursday’s NA-249 Ka-rachi by-election.
