SANGHAR: A second FIR was registered against six suspects at the Khipro police station with regard to the destruction of an unspecified number of ballot papers as an inquiry into the whole episode continued on Tuesday.

Additional district coordinator for national programme, Shama Gulani and four other government employees, Khalid Zahoor Baig, Arbab Zadi, Kulsoom and Jamna, were arrested after registration of the first FIR against them for allegedly marking postal ballot in favour of a Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) candidate on Sunday.

On Monday, they were produced before a judicial magistrate, who remanded them in jail custody after which Zahoor Baig was sent to the Sanghar jail and Shama Gulani, Arbab Zadi, Kulsoom and Jamna to the women jail in Hyderabad.

Six more suspects were nominated in the second FIR lodged by the Khipro mukhtiarkar, Mohammed Shah Muazzam, in the case. They included Shahid Marri, the personal assistant of PPP candidate Shazia Marri and Ghulam Murtaza Channa, the reader of the Khipro additional sessions judge, Muneer Tehlani and a clerk of the same court.

It was stated in the FIR that the suspects were asked to appear before the Sanghar deputy commissioner to testify but they declined to comply with the order.

Meanwhile, PPP opponents in NA-216 Sanghar-II held a demonstration outside the local press club late on Monday evening to demand arrest of the remaining suspects. They were led by Ali Ghulam Nizamani, who is the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) candidate for PS-41 Sanghar-II and the representative (Khalifa) of Hur Jamaat’s spiritual leader Pir Pagara, the head of GDA, in the area.

An inquiry into the allegations of tampering with and destruction of postal ballot papers in Shahdadpur, Khipro and Jam Nawaz Ali in three separate incidents over the past week is under way under the supervision of the deputy commissioner.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2018