SWABI: Awami National Party leaders and poll candidates staged a protest here on Sunday night against the snatching of postal ballots meant for government employees from the staff of a post office in Gadoon Amazai Industrial Estate on Friday.

The incident occurred in PK-49.

During the protest staged outside the office of the returning officer for PK-49, Shahnawaz Akhunzada, the ANP candidate from NA-19, demanded action against the culprits.

Sohail Khan, ANP candidate from PK-49, urged the Supreme Court and the election commission to order action against those involved in the rigging strategy.

Police book two JUI-F activists, recover 345 ballots from them

The protest continued late into the night, forcing the police into action.

District police officer Haroon Rashid Khan said two people, who belonged to JUI-F, had been arrested and an FIR registered against them under sections 382, 506,186,189 and 34 of PPC.

He said the number of the snatched ballot papers was 345. However, the ANP leaders said the number of snatched ballot papers was much higher.

The DPO said the snatched ballot papers had also been recovered.

He identified the people involved in snatching of ballot papers as Shahid Khan Jadoon and Amjid Khan Jadoon.

Shahid is nephew of former provincial minister Ghafoor Khan Jadoon, the JUI-F candidate from PK-49.

The DPO said it seemed the ballot papers were snatched for Ghafoor Jadoon.

Though the ballot papers were snatched on Friday, officials of the post office were tight-lipped as they neither registered an FIR nor did they bring the matter into the notice of office, the election commission or the district administration over unknown reasons.

However, when the ANP leaders and workers built pressure the police were forced to take action, and the incident also went viral on social media.

The ANP activists said the snatching of ballots was tantamount to pre-poll rigging.

DPO Haroon Rasheed said the postal employees told them that two men threatened to kill them if they didn’t hand over the ballots to them.

Meanwhile, the JUI-F leaders insisted the ballot papers were left in a shop in Gandaf village by postmaster Asif Khan, and when Shahid and Amjid noticed them they told him to hand them over to concerned public sector employees. However, they claimed when the postmaster expressed reluctance, the two men picked the ballot papers from the shop.

Political observers said the incident had weakened Ghafoor Jadoon’s position in the constituency.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2024

To find your constituency and location of your polling booth, SMS your NIC number (no spaces) to 8300. Once you know your constituency, visit the ECP website here for candidates.