PPP's Saeed Ghani on Friday dismissed all allegations raised against him after his win in the PS-114 by-election, a provincial assembly seat from Karachi, accusing his main rivals — provincial legislators from MQM-Pakistan — of attempting to intimidate him.

He also accused the MQM-P of being the same as the MQM-London, which stands accused of anti-state activities.

"These people have not changed, we know how they operate and we refuse to be intimidated by them," Ghani said.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had a day earlier withheld a notification to declare Ghani as winner after admitting a petition filed by the MQM candidate from the constituency, Kamran Khan Tessori.

Tessori had accused the PPP of rigging the election and sought the ECP’s orders for a vote recount and the verification of thumb impressions on votes cast by the National Database and Registration Authority.

In his petition, Tessori had alleged that the by-election for PS-114, held on July 9, was rigged by the PPP with the help of the Sindh government and local police.

“To start with, many persons were apprehended red-handed while casting bogus votes; but the bogus votes were not identified or excluded. Those who had cast bogus votes were either related to PPP candidate Saeed Ghani, or belonged to the PPP or were its supporters,” the petition read.

It pointed out that the PS-114 constituency had never been a constituency of the PPP. “Since 1998 till the 2017 by-election, the PPP has never been able to get more than 3,827 votes — but, surprisingly, this time its candidate secured 23,797 votes, which cannot be believed,” it said.

"At least in polling stations 79, 85, 86, 87 and 90, the PPP with police help, captured polling stations and the PPP’s candidate and his cohorts brazenly cast bogus votes," it added.

"Even before the by-election, there had been pre-poll rigging. The voters faced hurdles in reaching the said polling stations," it alleged.

"Additionally, because of the very close proximity of those polling stations to one another, the voters were clustered, harassed and were further inconvenienced. Because of these, voters of the MQM shied away and the PPP had a field day in casting bogus votes."

Tessori has also submitted a comparison of votes secured by the PPP in the 2013 election from the constituency and in the 2017 by-election.

The PS-114 seat had fallen vacant after PML-N’s Irfanullah Khan Marwat was disqualified. Marwat had won the 2013 general election from the constituency, securing 37,130 votes against his closest rival Abdul Rauf Siddiqui of the MQM, who secured 30,305 votes. PTI’s Israr Ahmad Abbasi and PPP’s Sajjad Ahmad Pappi could bag only 13,807 and 3,827 votes, respectively.

In the recently held by-election, the scene entirely changed. Ghani secured over 23,000 votes and runner-up Kamran Tessori secured over 18,000 votes. PML-N’s Akbar Gujjar and PTI’s Najeeb Haroon bagged a little over 5,000 votes each.