KARACHI: Amid claims to victory staked by major political parties participating in the NA-249 by-election in Karachi on Thursday, the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) said rigging had been carried out through police and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Sources said the ECP had till late night collected results of 165 polling stations, according to which, the PML-N got 9,618 votes, PPP 8,592, banned Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) 5,852, PTI 4,907, Pak Sarzameen Party 5,003 and MQM-P 4,039.

Total votes cast in 165 polling stations were 40,282, indicating that the voter turnout was only 11.99pc.

The PPP claimed that its candidate was leading as per unofficial results. Sindh Minister Saeed Ghani in his late night tweet claimed that as per results of 213 polling stations out of 276, the PPP candidate had secured 13,706 votes, PML-N’s aspirant 11,673, TLP’s 9,923, PTI’s 7,195, PSP’s 6,653 and MQM-Pakistan candidate 5,194.

The PML-N leadership expressed doubts over the results. While a party leader, Mohammad Zubair, in media talk claimed that their candidate was leading, PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz in her social media comment alleged that the results were being changed.

Meanwhile, the PTI rejected the results. The party’s lawmaker Khurram Sher Zaman alleged that the role of the ECP remained controversial during the entire polling exercise and a government official from Nawabshah played a major role in rigging the election.

Prominent candidates for the National Assembly seat are the PML-N’s Miftah Ismail, PPP’s Qadir Khan Mandokhail, banned TLP’s Mufti Nazeer Ahmed, PTI’s Amjad Afridi, PSP’s Syed Mustafa Kamal and MQM-Pakistan’s Mohammed Mursaleen.

Low turnout of voters was reported on account of a host of reasons, ranging from fasting and extremely hot weather to Covid-19 pandemic.

Polling was held amid tight security as hundreds of policemen and Rangers personnel were deployed in the constituency.

The National Assembly seat from Karachi West-11 has fallen vacant after resignation of federal minister Faisal Vawda.

In the 2018 general elections, PTI’s Vawda had won the seat by securing 35,349 votes and defeating PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif by just 723 votes.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2021