GUJRAT: The final consolidation of the unofficial results announced by returning officers (ROs) of NA-64 (Gujrat-Kunjah) and PP-32 (Kunjah) will be conducted on Tuesday.

The ROs have issued notices to all the candidates of both the constituencies to either personally attend the consolidation process or send their representatives, at 9am on February 13 (Tuesday).

The PTI-backed candidates Ms Qaisera Elahi from NA-64 and her spouse Chaudhry Parvez Elahi from PP-32 had challenged the unofficial results announced by the ROs of their respective constituencies through filing a petition to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), demanding consolidation of results.

The petitioners alleged that they were winning the election by a huge margin, but the ROs declared Salik Hussain, the PML-Q candidate, as winner on both seats.

ECP’s three-member tribunal heard the petition on Sunday the last and ordered the ROs of both constituencies to conduct the consolidation process in the presence of all candidates, including the petitioners or their nominated representatives, before Feb 15.

Moreover, Gujrat district police officer (DPO) was also ordered by the ECP to ensure the presence of the petitioners or their nominees at the time of consolidation of results.

The ECP also sought a detailed report from the ROs regarding the petitioners’ allegations of changing the results in NA-64 and PP-32. The ROs have to submit their reports with the ECP deputy director within three days of the order.

Meanwhile, north Punjab Jamaat-i-Islami Emir Dr Tariq Saleem and Gujrat district Emir Ansar Mehmood Dhool have alleged gross irregularities in the conduct of election on all the seats in the district, accusing the ROs of changing the original results.

Flanked by the JI aspirants across the district at a presser at the Islamic Centre here that the votes polled for the party candidates had been “spoiled” by ignoring the results on Form 45, particularly in NA-64, PP-31 and PP-32.

For instance, Mr Saleem said, the votes of JI candidate from NA-64, Raja Sajid Sharif, had been shown around 9,500 whereas in PP-31 the party nominee Ansar Mehmood’s votes were shown around 3,200 and in PP-32 JI’s Hafiz Iqbal’s votes were shown only 440. He said that actually the party obtained some 2,000 votes only at a few polling stations of Kunjah town in PP-32.

He urged the ECP to order a probe into the “irregularities” committed by the ROs.

He said the same “method” was used in other constituencies of Gujrat district to rig the election, which was not acceptable.

The JI leaders said that except for the two constituencies — NA-62 and PP-28 — the results had been changed across the district to declare the defeated candidates as winners.

Published in Dawn, February 13th, 2024