Islamabad
The PML-N has demanded that the judiciary take a suo motu notice on the Daska by-election after a report by the Election Commission of Pakistan determined that the polls were not held in a free and transparent manner.
Addressing the media on Sunday, PML-N stalwart and former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said that Article 240 of the Constitution says all institutions should help the Election Commission of Pakistan in holding transparent elections.
He said that the ECP’s report contains the names of all those involved in the “rigging”, and that a meeting held in this regard was attended by “many PTI members”. “The meeting decided how the election would be rigged,” he alleged.
Abbasi called for exemplary punishment of all “conspirators” and termed the report a “test” for the superior judiciary.
Noting the report’s contents, he said that Deputy Colleges Sialkot summoned all presiding officers to Daska College and gave them instructions.
“Presiding officers were directed to keep voting slow in Daska city,” Abbasi said, adding that they were “told not to interfere in whatever the police and administration do”. “Polling stations were ordered to close at 4:30pm,” he said, in further reference to the report.
Abbasi, quoting the report, said that the Deputy Education (Female) also invited women presiding officers to her home and that Assistant Commissioner Daska and DSP Sambrial were also present at the DEO’s house.
“Women presiding officers were asked to help the government and not interfere in rigging,” he alleged.
The PML-N leader went on to say that 20 presiding officers were transferred via private vehicles under the “scheme” and were “kept at two different police stations” as well as an unknown location. He said that one woman presiding officer was “maltreated”, as is mentioned in the ECP report.
“The report says the RO did not leave his office,” Abbasi said, adding that the returning officers “did not know of the missing presiding officers’ whereabouts till seven hours later”.—INP
