October 12, 2002	Saturday	Sha'aban 5, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 11: Reports of rigging in the general election started pouring in as results of many seats were not announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan till late Friday night.

Their were reports about the changing of the ballot boxes in constituencies from where the commission had not received results even after a lapse of 24 hours.

The secretariat of the People’s Party Parliamentarians in the federal capital said results gathered by it showed the PPP had secured 120 to 125 seats of the National Assembly.

The results, particularly of the constituencies in Sindh, were being held back, giving rise to suspicions of manipulation.

Ayaz Amir, a PML(N) candidate from NA-60 Chakwal-I, told Dawn, over the telephone, that the vote count obtained from the polling stations in his constituency showed that he led his rival by 8,000 votes.

He claimed that the copies of the result sheets put his total votes at 69,875 against his opponent’s 61,000 votes. But the Election Commission said his opponent had bagged 72,000 votes.

Mohammad Khan Achakzai, the brother of Pashtoonkhawa Milli Awami Party chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai, said the results of NA- 262 of Killa Abdullah in Balochistan were being held up without any reason.

He said his brother had got a lead of 10,000 votes and his son Abdul Majeed Khan, contesting from the PB-13 Killa Abdullah- III, got a lead of 8,000 votes. But the Election Commission was not announcing the unofficial results as ballot boxes were lying with the district coordination officer for possible change of the vote count, he alleged.