GUJRAT: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has filed a petition before the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) seeking a forensic audit of the ballot papers, counterfoils and biometrics used in Sialkot’s PP-38 constituency bypolls held on July 28 last.

The petition has also demanded that the by-election be declared null and void and a fresh bypoll ordered owing to bogus votes cast through presiding officers.

Tariq Akhtar Subhani, the runner-up candidate belonging to the PML-N, also a petitioner in the case, told Dawn over telephone that the ECP while accepting his petition had set Aug 24 as the first date of hearing.

He said he had attached enough proofs in favour of his demand to open the record of ballot papers and counterfoils and it was his constitutional right to challenge the election within 60 days of the polling.

He alleged that there was a great difference in forms 45 and 46 and it showed rigging in the election. He said a thorough inspection of polling material was required and the thumb impressions on ballot papers and counterfoils were needed to be audited whereas signatures of presiding and assistant presiding officers on forms 45 and 46 were different casting doubts on the credibility of the polling.

Subhani urged the ECP to ensure justice and declare the bypoll void.

PML-N Deputy Secretary General Attaullah Tarrar who also accompanied Subhani while submitting the petition before the ECP in Islamabad on Tuesday, earlier stated to the media that the PTI should accept the challenge of reopening the PP-38 bypoll record for its forensic audit as rigging was orchestrated by the PTI government.

He blamed Tahir Khurshid, secretary to Punjab chief minister, for influencing the Sialkot administration for the victory of the PTI candidate through bogus votes and development schemes worth around Rs2.5 billion had also been launched in the constituency during canvassing.

The ruling PTI’s candidate, Ahsan Saleem Baryar, clinched the PP-38, Sialkot IV, seat by defeating PML-N’s Chaudhry Tariq Akhtar Subhani by a margin of 7,000 votes. Baryar has recently taken oath as an MPA.

BARYAR: PTI MPA Ahsan Saleem Baryar at a news conference brushed aside the allegation of rigging in the bypoll.

Flanked by his father Saleem Baryar, a Punjab PML-Q vice president, the MPA said the voters turnout in 2018 was around 60 per cent whereas it was around 55 per cent in the bypoll and around 24,000 new voters had been added to the constituency and those young voters had voted to the PTI due to Imran Khan’s youth-friendly policies.

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2021