NADRA report reveals massive rigging in Karachi constituency

E-Paper | December 05, 2025

KARACHI: The poll for a National Assembly seat (NA-256) in Karachi was massively rigged in the May 11 general elections, a National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) report submitted to an election tribunal revealed on Monday.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movements (MQM) candidate, Iqbal Muhammad Khan had won the seat.

Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) candidate Zubair Khan later challenged the poll result in the election tribunal headed by a former judge of the Sindh High Court, Zafar Ahmed Sherwani, who ordered Nadra for verification of voters’ thumb impressions on ballot papers.

The Nadra report revealed that there were 11,343 ballot papers that contained invalid national identity card numbers, which were never issued by Nadra.

791 votes were found not registered in the constituency and the fact was ascertained on the basis of the CNIC numbers mentioned on the used ballot papers. This bogus voting was observed in three different polling stations of the constituency.

Besides, report said that there were 5,839 duplicate votes, which were cast by as many as 2,812 voters mainly in two polling stations. It said as many as seven votes were cast on one CNIC belonging to a resident of Gulistan-e-Jauhar neighbourhood of the city.

As many as 314 ballot papers were found without having fingerprints on them. The report said that only 6,815 of the total 84,748 ballots sent to Nadra for verification of certain polling stations were successfully authenticated.

The thumb impressions on 57,642 ballots could not be compared or matched through the Nadra system because the fingerprints were of very poor quality.

The report said 1,950 votes failed authentication, because someone else voted against the CNIC number mentioned on the used counterfoils.

An earlier report presented by Nadra regarding voter verification for NA-258 Karachi had also revealed voter fraud.

Pakistan

Bogus voting on another NA seat confirmed

Stats confirm reports of rigging in several Karachi polling stations

Results show PTI has vote bank in MQM strongholds

Aamir

Oct 07, 2013 07:32pm

Well - if same process is followed in all the pollong stations across the board, results will be 100% different as everywhere. PM Nawaz is total fraud PM, for sure, he is not the voice of people. This process must take place soon for all the areas.

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Ali

Oct 07, 2013 07:32pm

Shame on MQM and its supporters. They have made a mockery of the democracy in Karachi. If the leader got any shame left, he must resign with this news. Please prosecute the culprits harshly so no one dare to do this again. The candidate must be bar forever.

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Oct 07, 2013 07:34pm

So what happens next?

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Oct 07, 2013 08:00pm

WELL DONE MQM.... what a plan to rig. Now don't say Karachi has your mandate?

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Greek Tragedy

Oct 07, 2013 08:14pm

Who did these criminals vote for? MQM? If so, they should be charged and brought to justice and debarred form voting in the future. This is the entire story of MQM, fraud, extortion, lies and violence.

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ishtiaq

Oct 07, 2013 08:24pm

WE WILL WIN INSHALLAH GA PTI

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ishtiaq

Oct 07, 2013 08:25pm

we will win INSHALLH.from this mqm become exposed

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Numan Butt

Oct 07, 2013 08:34pm

Good job . At least Nadra has proved its usefulness. Let's see what other departments do now. This is a good development any way. There are signs of improvement in the system

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khalid

Oct 07, 2013 08:44pm

So Imran Khan was right when he claimed the massive rigging in last elections particularly in Lahore and Karachi. MQM should be ashamed of itself.

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Nizamudd Ahamd Aali

Oct 07, 2013 08:46pm

And the winner is ........................ Wailing for result, Hon. Fakroo . Election commissioner.

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Omer

Oct 07, 2013 08:51pm

So much for the mandate of Karachi! Will the media-savvy CJ heed PTI's demand for verification of votes through Nadra in the four Punjab constituencies? Or the judiciary is waiting for the term of this fake-mandate govt to complete?

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edwardian

Oct 07, 2013 08:56pm

It has taken five months to come to this conclusion, which was always known. Now how much time our justice system need to punish the culprits. I think another five years.

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ahmedj

Oct 07, 2013 08:58pm

So thats true, this is "Sharam-naak".

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naeem khan

Oct 07, 2013 09:01pm

if NADRA is not able to verify 57,642 votes how does it prove that elections were massively rigged As ink is repeatedly poured over thumb pads many a times during the polling day and sufficient time is not given that the pad should absorb the ink so the thumb impression is not readable when i caste my vote i could clearly see that the thumbprint was not readable because of the above mentioned factor Also if NADRA cannot verify the vote how are they able to conclude that the winner rigged election

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Anees

Oct 07, 2013 09:28pm

Free and Fair RIGGING.

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Waheed Mirza

Oct 07, 2013 09:32pm

Who did it? winner or loser?.

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Rez

Oct 07, 2013 09:48pm

I am 200 % sure that if EC undertakes the total verification of the entire votes that were cast in Pakistan through NADRA. But that would open a Pandora box and no one is in the mood to open that.

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Fareed

Oct 07, 2013 09:50pm

And MQM still claims that there was no rigging.MQM's candidate Iqbal Muhammad Khan must be disqualified immediatelt. barred from contesting election for life.

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awais

Oct 07, 2013 09:54pm

how about that now ...

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Arif

Oct 07, 2013 10:02pm

Will there be any punnishemt for those who voted multiple times? If there will be no punishment they will do the same in the coming elections...

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Oct 07, 2013 10:06pm

Will I be wrong to believe that MQM did this, as their candidate had won? When will MQM stop cheating the citizens of Pakistan.

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Guest63

Oct 07, 2013 10:12pm

WOW , there goes the claim of MQM , that they have the mandate and conspiracy is being hatched to deprive the MQM of its public mandate !!!!! I wonder who should be charged for this massive fraud , the MQM candidate , The MQM Party itself , The Election commission staff presiding over that polling stations ??? I dare ask , will the ECP act and annul the polling results as well as disqualify the candidate forthwith ???

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Zee

Oct 07, 2013 10:17pm

Nothing would happen.

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M Rafique

Oct 07, 2013 11:27pm

Very soon there wiil be a statement from MQM Rabbita Committee, its a conspiracy against their party and 85% of Karachities voted for them

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Qazi Hassan

Oct 07, 2013 11:23pm

The big question unanswered here. In whose favor were these votes casted? Now let us do simple arithmetic. MQM Votes minus bogus votes still greater than PTI.

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Ashar

Oct 08, 2013 12:00am

Do you see anything wrong with the statement "The thumb impressions on 57,642 ballots could not be compared or matched through the Nadra system because the fingerprints were of very poor quality". What is the use of taking the thumb impression if NADRA cannot even verify it. People have been saying this all along that the fingerprinting cannot be verified due to poor quality of paper used and the lack of proper software to verify. Imagine!

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Asim Malik

Oct 08, 2013 01:28am

They should have another election. This is clearly all a sham. 5 more years by inept leaders will destroy Pakistan

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Sajid

Oct 08, 2013 01:29am

Wow; another example of true democracy and gate keeping through ballot papers.... After this evidence, who wants to have all ballots verified by NADRA? Raise your hands........no one; ya, thats what i thought, coz nothing is wrong with our democracy and represtation

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Sajid

Oct 08, 2013 02:16am

Given all this overwhelming evidence; lemme guess what will happen next.... Election Commission will order all ballot papers to be verified through NADRA....Presiding officers of the polling boots will be fired from their jobs, then arrested, then tried and subsequently convicted. In parellel, the NA seat holder will resign, the seat will be vacated and fresh and fair elections will be held for true people's representation! And Democracy will florish! Oh wait, I forgot, its Pakistan......NOTHING will happen and And Democracy will CONTINUE to florish!

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Iqbal Zia

Oct 08, 2013 02:35am

Honesty exist? Greed overtake. Shameless interview by leaders Corruption celebrated and devious and dubious come forward with slogans . How will I show and teach my next generation that one need to be principled in his life. Why we build our lives on falsehood. Why ? Councillor Iqbal Zia St Albans City and District council Hertfordshire Uk

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A.Q.Rana

Oct 08, 2013 03:05am

So what will happen now? Repolling?

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pakiboy

Oct 08, 2013 04:46am

nadra's whole system is full of flaws .. this type of verification should be done when it is itself completely reliable .. and also this type of verifications should be done throughout the country .. !!

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Syed Ahmed

Oct 08, 2013 04:58am

The sample check is a proof of massive rigging in Maty11, elections. If proper investigations are made in Karachi and Lahore constituencies Nawaz Sharif will cut a sorry figure. PTI would be in a much happier position.

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Shoiab

Oct 08, 2013 05:21am

So who whould have won?

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khan

Oct 08, 2013 05:22am

we are waiting till the truth starts speaking itself,

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hamid khan

Oct 08, 2013 05:36am

Now I am waiting for the comments of Altaf Bhai,What he will say that Nadra has a plan against the interests of Mohajir, or what. I want to see him shedding his crocodile tears.

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Aay Kay

Oct 08, 2013 06:20am

Why the civil society, writers, column writers, politicians and big mouths are calm now?? Speak out against this for the sake of democracy and ask new elections in Karachi and Hyderabad.

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Syd

Oct 08, 2013 07:11am

Wake up CEC and wake up chief justice. Enough is enough. There should be a sou moto now.

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faisal

Oct 08, 2013 07:51am

Whats new....

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Shah N. Khan

Oct 08, 2013 08:07am

I'd call it a massive maladministration by Election Commission. Not to use magnetic ink for thumb print is, inter alia, serious lapase on the part of Election Commission. The report says The report said that only 6,815 of the total 84,748 ballots sent to Nadra for verification of certain polling stations were successfully authenticated. The thumb impressions on 57,642 ballots could not be compared or matched through the Nadra system because the fingerprints were of very poor quality. That is obvious because magnetic was not used like most of other constituencies in Pakistan. I ho[pe smilar situation is not found in other places where rigging is being alleged by almost all parties but only where their candidates lost.

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SMN

Oct 08, 2013 08:39am

NADRA report clearly shows massive rigging, cheating, fraud and goverrnment machinery cunnivance. This has been going in Karachi years after year. No body dare talk about this. Election Commission should now request NADRA to conduct similar exercise in at least another five constituencies of Karachi to judge creditability of members electedv to National Assembly.

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imran

Oct 08, 2013 10:40am

The nadra has declare about the bogus vote in karachi, they checked only that regions which pti pointed out, there were be more regions were involved in such cases. Now its the responsibility of supreme court to ordered nadra to check other regions also all in pakistan, and whenever some one involved in bogus voting they may be banned for the future. Strict discipline action will be taken against such people.

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Oct 08, 2013 10:56am

And?

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Rizwan Masood

Oct 08, 2013 11:51am

Nothing new. We all know for sure how MQM has succeeded in bagging votes running into five figures. They win by threats, by terrorizing people and by rigging. Their vote bank has significantly been reduced a fact they always deny. It is a party that is founded on the very principles of getting its way "by hook or by crook!"

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Dr Khan

Oct 08, 2013 12:34pm

Where is our Election Commission?.Why are they silent?Why no one from EC find the courage to come on TV and explain such irregularities.Nation gave them responsibility to conduct the free and fair election but they failed badly.If Nadra varifications are done in other seats won by PML N in Punjab ,including the seat won by NA speaker I am confident that massive scale rigging would be confirmed.Fakro Bhai had some decency to resign but what about other members of the EC,When are they resigning?Secretary EC is on the record giving statement on TV that EC failed to conduct fair and transparent elections in Karachi.We need to rewamp the EC.Without major change in EC ,no one would accept forthcomming local bodies elections in the country.

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fida sayani

Oct 08, 2013 12:49pm

All individuals responsible for this fraudulent election in this constituency should be persecuted and punished severely.

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Dr Khan

Oct 08, 2013 12:58pm

@naeem khan: What about over 5000 ballot papers with no thump impression at all?And thousands with no ID cards numbers.Re election is the only way forward under army presence both inside and outside polling booth is the only way forward.We in Karachi saw massive scale rigging in front of us,we dont need a proof to confirm rigging.It just shows that EC failed to conduct the election in line with International standards.

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Akram

Oct 08, 2013 01:46pm

What is most important here is the people running these polling stations are brought to book, in particular the thumb prints are traced through NADRA and those submitting bogus votes are jailed and banned for life from any political activity. They should also investigate whether the action was done on the behest of the candidate, in which case he should be the first person in jail.

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dr khan

Oct 08, 2013 01:58pm

@Qazi Hassan: For how long people like you will remain in denail phase and say that election were free fair and transparent in Karachi.I can provide your dozens of family members living in different parts of Karachi who will confirm that when they went out for vote the doors were locked from inside and through widow they could see workers of a political party filling fallot boxes.

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dr khan

Oct 08, 2013 02:03pm

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Azmat Shah

Oct 08, 2013 02:02pm

@Qazi Hassan: This because they have less then half of the total votes yet. The figure will be much higher when all the votes are checked. So far 77000 out of roughly 85000 have been declared fake or doubtful so i am not sure where how did you get to thius conclusion that MQM votes - bogus votes > PTI votes

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Azmat Shah

Oct 08, 2013 02:04pm

@Arif: And the irony is that they have even identified the person who voted 7 times but the law is still not coming in to action

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Jawad

Oct 08, 2013 02:20pm

Thats what Tahir Ul Qadri said earlier. Nothing new for all of us, we all are part of this bogus elections. Shame on all of us.

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Ali K

Oct 08, 2013 02:22pm

Thanks to Musharraf for giving us Nadra. He was a visionary leader second only to Quaid-e-Azam

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ADM

Oct 08, 2013 02:20pm

There goes the claim of MQM that they have the massive mandate of KArachi. Nobody likes them due to their strong arm tactics where they worship their Quaid as if he is a saint. If free and fair elections are held in Karachi, MQM would be routed for sure.

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Taimoor Khan

Oct 08, 2013 02:33pm

So now what all the IK haters have to say now? All those neo liberals, can you please stand up and explain this? May election was nothing more then a massive conspiracy to hijack Pakistanis mandate, and it was all done with the help of foriegn powers included America and Saudi Arabia.

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Ashfaq Hyderabad

Oct 08, 2013 03:23pm

Perhaps it was a matter of making world record. The whole process of voting in the country was based on forgeries committed by the political thugs. Innocent people of Pakistan have been denied right of choosing right people, as if Pakistan is not a right place for right people to make right decision, since independence.

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Malik

Oct 08, 2013 04:39pm

@Shoiab: MQM can loose half of their seats easily if elections are fair. We have been seeing this from years. But unfortunate that our rulers are not honest, may be if we had electornic voting system i can bet you will not see PP in Sindh and PML in Punjab and Baluchistan. But why these corrupt rules will go electronic voting. I hope Election Commision does it electronic polling next election. What about NA-256 are we having re election or not? keep Army in / out of station and no one allowed inside booth without ID card and you will see result and MQM Loose i Bet....

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Farhan

Oct 08, 2013 04:51pm

@naeem khan: If a thumb print is not readable, the document is considered invalid as per rules. so it was your responsibility to affix proper thumb print my dear

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Yousuf

Oct 08, 2013 07:33pm

The headline should be: The thumb impressions on 57,642 ballots could not be compared or matched through the Nadra system because the fingerprints were of very poor quality. How does this prove rigging ?

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Nasr

Oct 08, 2013 09:04pm

The only answer is electronic voting. Doodh ka Dood Pani Ka Pani

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Shah N. Khan

Oct 08, 2013 10:38pm

@Ali: NADRA does not say that all those 58, 000 votes where thumb prints could not be verified were cast in favor of MQM which got about 120, 000 votes out of 250, 000 or so. Most probably they were cast in favor of different candidates.

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Dr Khan

Oct 09, 2013 08:24am

@Akram: You are absolutely right but with present EC one can not expect Justice.Who will punish these crimnals who rigged the election?.Present goverment is not serious in accountability and recent appointment of PML N MPA's father and a close associate of PM Nawaz Shareef as NAB chairman speaks volume about the seriouness on the part of ruling party.Now with Ex president Zardar's sister being appointed as public account committee forget about the 5 years corruption of PPP goverment.Imran Khan was right in saying that PPP and PMLN are the two sides of the same coin.

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Oct 09, 2013 08:47am

The will not be too different if they do the recount in Lahore or any part of Pakistan. Massive rigging and the inherent procedural shortcomings will show up in most constituencies. Karachi should not be singled out for this to make it look like only MQM did it.

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rehan

Oct 09, 2013 10:50am

Bio-metrics based voting is the only solution

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Oct 09, 2013 11:15am

@Malik: If wishes were horses, you would certainly own a stable. Lot of Karachiites may take up fault with MQM but the fact remains that in the absence of a credible alternative sincere to Karachi and for that matter other urban areas, MQM is going to remain around, like it or not. News like this are quoted out of context to prove that MQM does not enjoy the mandate of the city but the sort of issues highlighted by Nadra would be applicable to almost every constituency in the country. So please dont make your case against MQM on foundations of straw.

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Oct 09, 2013 11:18am

@Dr Khan: You must be living in another planet - or at least are definitely not from Karachi. Gentleman, refer to the last by election held in Karachi which was under army rule and MQM emerged triumphant with the next runner up, a PTI guy, getting only 10% of MQM's candidate votes. Dont get your wishful thinking in way of raw facts.

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Usman

Oct 09, 2013 11:21am

Very sad. Truth has started to speak. Shame on Election Commission, Chief Justice and MQM.

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Karachi Walay

Oct 09, 2013 11:58am

Salute to Faisal Sabzwari and MQM representatives to defend and defend well on the issue. The people here are too emotional that they don't want to hear the logical answers as well. Besides having genuine duplication of votes and bogus voting there is a huge number of votes that are not verified by NADRA due to unrecognized thumb impressions mainly because of using ordinary ink and low quality printed slips. Now that is something really shameful for ECP and ECP has to be responsible not any political party. Faisal Sabzwari is truly claiming that such kind of forensic analysis must be done as a sample nationwide and you will get the same results. So dear friends please don't abuse MQM for this matter rather ask ECP to take actions to enhance quality of their work. Why not we adopt electronic poling system in upcoming local government elections. "Doodh ka doodh Pani ka Pani magar us say pehlay we don't need any Kahani".

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Imran

Oct 09, 2013 01:37pm

@Yousuf: I understand what you mean. But that's media, so it will spice up things, but you can't deny there was rigging, one person casting 35 votes and another 7, hundreds casted by people with non-existent NIC. There was rigging across the country, no one denies that. But the bigger question is who is going to take notice of this. Thats why I have always said the most corrupt, real culprit in this for this while situation is CJ of Pakistan. He turns blind eye when it comes to PMLN, if head of justice system isnt making any justice, forget anything will go right in this country, he should be removed from his post, put on trial immediately and made answerable for all his doings. One can live in a society with Zulm but can't live in a society where there is no justice. And thats what is missing from Pakistan. I can only hope people wake up this time, and fight for their rights and their kids lives, otherwise it will be too late and too little.

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Insane Engineer

Oct 09, 2013 04:38pm

@Jawad: Tahir Who ?

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Insane Engineer

Oct 09, 2013 04:41pm

@Jawad: Speak fpr yourself man.

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Insane Engineer

Oct 09, 2013 04:55pm

A novel idea. In this age of communication and a massive database of NADRA, why not compare the thumb prints on line at the polling station, by comparing it with the database. This way, the bogus votes, and those who vote more than once, would be caught in real time. I think, I deserve a nobel peace prize for this idea. Or is it the NO BILL in pieces prize ?

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asgher

Oct 09, 2013 05:10pm

Electronic and bio-metric voting only!!!!!

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asgher

Oct 09, 2013 05:12pm

@Ali K: is country ko almost saari achi cheezain army governments nay hi di hain Pervez Musharaf almost gave us a major Dam for solving our electricity and flood problems for next 2 decades but thanks to our Chohdree and Waderas, kalabagh dam now is just a dream

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nayyar

Oct 09, 2013 11:15pm

MQM are vote riggers, I have seen it with my own eyes. They try to defend themselves on TV for the murders they have committed for the past 3 decades. Their leadership has no vision, they have done so much wrong for the Urdu speaking people that it is unbelievable. Stop calling strikes (you Indian agents), you are crippling our economy. Present Govt. must take action and disband this party, issue arrest warrant for Altaf and bring him to justice.

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Muhammad Ahmed Mufti

Oct 10, 2013 12:54am

If finger prints from crime scene can be authenticated, why can't the ones with poor ink quality ? These may not even be finger prints.

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Abdullah

Oct 10, 2013 11:49am

@Syd: You want to wake ECP? They wont wake, they enjoy sleeping in the laps of these politicians

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muhammad

Oct 10, 2013 06:52pm

@Usman: And what about PTI because according to Nadra they found only 6000 + valid votes in 67 polling stations and in these 67 polling stations PTI obtained 12000 + votes HOW ?

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