07 September 2004	Tuesday	21 Rajab 1425

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KARACHI, Sept 6: The Pakistan Peoples Party-Parliamentarian (PPP-P) has released a 'white paper' on the alleged manipulation and rigging in the by-election for NA-229 Tharparkar-I to the advantage of prime minister Shaukat Aziz.

Unfolding the document at a press conference here on Monday, the PPP-P's Deputy Secretary General and parliamentary leader in the Senate, Mr Raza Rabbani accused the government of stuffing ballot boxes which, he claimed, reflected in the unprecedented turnout in a backward constituency.

The white paper maintains that the polling scheme of the NA-229 was changed in the by-election and, as a consequence, 17 polling stations were changed without intimating the PPP-P candidate. It was pointed out that the party, in the last general elections, had by and large won from those polling stations. It alleged that 16 new polling stations were created to affect 13,320 votes.

Mr Rabbani further claimed that the Election Commission did not bother to reply to any of the numerous complaints made by his party. The white paper pointed out that in the electoral list of NA-229, 11,482 votes of the PPP-P were missing. They had been deliberately deleted from the electoral list, it claimed.

"Many of our confirmed voters could not find their names in the lists of their respective polling stations," said Mr Rabbani. He pointed out that it was intriguing to know that the total number of votes, in the 2002 general elections, in NA-229 was 263,061. But in 2004, the number went down to 251,579.

He also referred to the alleged misuse of state resources by the Sindh chief minister and, in this regard, mentioned the distribution of cheques among the people affected by last year's floods. The intention, he claimed, was to seek their support in the by-election.

He also mentioned the alleged misuse of official vehicles, and claimed that an amount of Rs50 million was given to each of the DCOs of Tharparkar and Mirpurkhas for arranging public meetings for Mr Shaukat Aziz.

He pointed out that the total votes polled in the by-election were 165,016 which meant a turnout of 65.59 per cent. "This high turnout was incomprehensible in any country, particularly in a by-election," he said.

Mr Rabbani also pointed out that the relevant laws and rules were used and violated in the campaign for Mr Shaukat Aziz and his candidature. Those to the advantage of the government candidate were retained and implemented while those creating trouble for him were removed.

In this context, he cited violation of Article 6 of the Election Commission Order 2002 which said that "nomination forms of sitting governors of any province, federal or provincial ministers should not be accepted for election to any National Assembly or a Provincial Assembly constituency or the Senate of Pakistan."

The white paper accused the PML government of deleting Article 9 of the Political Parties Order 2002 through an Act of Parliament 'with mala fide intent.' With regard to the allocation of election symbol to the PML, the paper point out that the day when the PML-Q was awarded the election symbol, it was not qualified under law to be awarded the same, as it did not till that date meet the requirements of Article 12 of the PPO 2002.

Articles 11 and 12 of the said Order provided for election within a political party and the entire documentation of the same had to be submitted to the Election Commission by the political party.

Article 13 of the said Order provided for information to be provided by the political party to the Election Commission of the source of the party's funds. Article 14 pertains to the eligibility of a party to obtain a election symbol.

When the election symbol was allotted to the PML, it was not entitled under the law, Mr Rabbani pointed out, saying this was in violation of the requirements of Article 14 of the PPO and the EC was bound under the law not to allot the same.

With regard to the alleged bogus voting, the white paper said: "In the general elections of 2002, NA-176 Tharparkar was bifurcated into two National Assembly constituencies, namely NA-229 Tharparkar-I and NA-230 Tharparkar-II. No new area was added to either of the two constituencies and the talukas remained the same - Mithi, Diplo, Chachro and Nagarparkar.

The white paper gave a historical perspective of the increase in the number of registered voters in the constituency. It also contained cases of alleged rigging reported in local media, mentioning that 1,100 FIRs had been registered against opposition members and supporters. At a women polling station, it said, the turnout had reached 65 per cent within the last half-an-hour while there was no voter in sight.

It maintained that a number of people had been seen at polling stations with more than one NIC in their hands, waiting for their turn to cast votes on the polling day. Reports of children casting votes had also been mentioned in the white paper.

According to another media report, 32 cars belonging to the supporters of the opposition candidate were confiscated by the local police, the white paper alleged, adding that the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) had also seen a large number of official cars being used in the campaign for the government candidate. The white paper contains a synopsis of 55 letters written to the Election Commission.