KARACHI: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has sought strict action against those responsible for creating disturbances and burning election materials during a recount of votes in NA-231 (Malir), on Friday.

Despite heavy police deployment, armed assailants — described by the ECP as ‘masked men’ — forced their way into the office of the regional election commissioner during the recounting of votes from four polling stations and forcibly took away bags containing ballot papers and set them ablaze in front of the election office.

An election tribunal had ordered the recount on an application filed by PTI-backed aspirant Khalid Mehmood. PPP’s Abdul Hakeem Baloch had won the seat in the Feb 8 general elections with a narrow margin of 389 votes.

Following the tribunals decision, the provincial election commissioner had been instructed to hold a recount of four polling stations on Oct 11 at 10am.

ECP seeks action against ‘attackers’; police register FIR, take political activist into custody

According to a report by Regional Election Commissioner Imtiaz Ahmed Qureshi, a group of unidentified armed individuals with their faces covered attacked his office, where recounting was in progress.

They ransacked the office and forcibly took away polling bags of four polling stations i.e. 65, 71, 98 & 175 of NA-231, which were set on fire outside the office building, the report said.

An ECP spokesperson said the commission had instructed the Sindh chief secretary and inspector general of police to take immediate and strict action against those involved in the disturbances.

Police said they had registered an FIR on the complaint of the regional election commissioner against unidentified suspects over charges of rioting and hooliganism inside the ECP office.

DIG (South) Syed Asad Raza said that police were in touch with the complainant to obtain evidence, such as CCTV footage. Later, he told Dawn that one suspect belonging to a political party had been arrested, but did not disclose their identity or political affiliation.

PTI Sindh President Haleem Adil Sheikh condemned the attack, and alleged that PPP supporters had carried out the attack. He claimed that during the attack, the mob chanted political slogans that betrayed their affiliation.

Describing the incident as “daylight terrorism” Mr Sheikh called upon the chief justice of the Sindh High Court to take immediate notice of the incident.

It should be noted that last month, ECP had suspended Sindh Provincial Election Commissioner Sharifullah and Director Admin Azhar Hussain Tanwari for 120 days over incompetence and misconduct after an incident involving an intrusion into its strong room that led to destruction of election record in the Pipri area of Karachi.

ECP had subsequently appointed joint provincial election commissioner Ali Asghar Sial as the acting election commissioner for Sindh.

Iftikhar A. Khan in Islamabad also contributed to this report

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2024