ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) decided on Thursday to withhold a notification declaring PPP candidate Saeed Ghani winner in the by-election for PS-114, a provincial assembly seat from Karachi.

A full bench of the ECP headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza made the decision on a petition filed by the MQM candidate from the constituency Kamran Khan Tessori accusing the PPP of rigging the election, and seeking ECP’s orders for a vote recount and thumb impression verification of all polled votes by the National Database and Registration Authority.

A plea had also been made to stop the issuance of a notification of the ‘successful candidate’ for the time being.

Action taken after MQM cried foul over by-election result

Admitting the petition for a regular hearing, the commission issued a notice to Saeed Ghani for July 17 and decided to withhold notification of his victory.

In his petition Mr Tessori had alleged that the by-election for PS-114 held on July 9 was completely rigged by the PPP by misusing the entire Sindh government machinery and the 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 PPPP candidate Saeed Ghani or belonged to the PPPP or were its supporters,” the petition reads.

It points out that the PS-114 constituency has never been a constituency of the PPPP. “Since 1998 till the 2017 by-election the PPPP 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 says.

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

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

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 PPPP had a field day in casting bogus votes.

MQM candidate Kamran Tessori through many letters to the RO and DRO had asked for changing the position of the polling stations, but all in vain. This was a systematic methodology employed by way of pre-poll rigging, orchestrated by the RO and DRO at the behest of the ruling PPPP.

Mr 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’s disqualification. Mr Marwat had won the 2013 general election from the constituency securing 37,130 votes as 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. PPP’s Saeed 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.

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2017