GUJRAT: The candidates belonging to at least five parties alleged large-scale tampering with the original Form 45 to change the results in NA-64 (Gujrat-Kunjah) and PP-32 (Kunjah), accusing the returning officer (RO) of declining to match the results (of Form 45 and 47), and tally those with the ballot papers, during the consolidation on Tuesday.

The candidates of the Pakistan Tehreek Insaf (PTI), Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Markazi Muslim League Pakistan (MMLP), have also expressed dissatisfaction over the method of consolidation of results in both constituencies and claimed that Ms Qaisera Elahi had actually won the seat by a huge margin, but the result was changed.

The consolidation of unofficial result in NA 64 and PP-32 was conducted by the ROs concerned on Tuesday.

The postal ballots of NA-64 were also opened before the candidates and according to the counting the PTI-backed Qaisara Elahi secured 98 votes, PML-Q’s Salik Hussain 29, JI’s Raja Sajid Sharif 13 and TLP’s Abdul Kareem bagged six votes.

As per the announcement by the RO office following the consolidation of unofficial result in NA 64, the votes of PTI’s Qaisera Elahi increased by around 9,000, totaling up to 89,795 from preciously announced 80,946. The votes of PML-Q’s Salik Hussain decreased from 105,205 to 100,379, after consolidation.

The consolidation was conducted as per the orders of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in response to the petitions filed by Ms Elahi and her spouse former Punjab chief minister Parvez Elahi.

Earlier, Salik Hussain was declared winner in both constituencies.

Addressing a joint press conference at Gujrat Press club following the consolidation process, Ms Elahi, her sister Sameera Elahi, JI aspirant Raja Sajid Sharif, Abdul Kareem of TLP, the lawyer of PPP nominee Mubeena Arshad and Sajjad Dar of MMLP alleged that except the postal ballots, the RO office did not show the ballots from any bag, nor he was ready to match the figures with those of Form 45.

Ms Ealhi said that as per the results collected by the PTI, her lead was around 150,000 votes in NA-64, but still her rival (Salik) was declared winner.

She vowed to strive for her right and move courts to seek the justice as “my mandate was stolen”.

Sameera Elahi said in PP-32 result consolidation too the RO refused to match the figures of Form 45 available to both sides, alleging massive tampering with and forgery in these forms.

Raja Sajid Sharif said the applications filed by different candidates, including himself, to open at least a few ballot bags to tally the Form 45 results, were rejected by the RO.

The TLP aspirant said the figures on Form 45 available with all the candidates were matching, while the official results were changed.

Strict security measures were taken at the Gujrat assistant commissioner’s office for the consolidation process. District Police Officer (DPO) Asad Muzaffar also visited the RO office to monitor the security.

Official sources say that the ROs have completed the consolidation process and will submit a report to the ECP on Feb 15 (tomorrow). The three-member ECP tribunal had stopped the ROs from issuing the notifications of the returned candidates on both these seats until the next date of hearing (Feb 15).

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2024