ISLAMABAD, April 20 The Election Commission will hear on Wednesday a petition seeking invalidation of the recent by-election for a Punjab assembly seat in Gujrat and issuance of an order for re-polling.

The petition, filed by Pakistan Muslim League-Q candidate Mian Imran Masud through advocate Wasim Sajjad, alleged massive rigging, irregularities and illegalities in the by-poll for PP-111.

The petitioner said the winner of the election, Haji Imran Zafar, was a joint candidate of the PML-N and Pakistan People's Party and both the federal and provincial governments had extended support to him before and during the polling.

He alleged that ballot boxes were snatched from polling staff at a girls' primary school in Kuttababad, the station was set on fire and a woman presiding officer was manhandled. She had to remain admitted in the Aziz Bhatti Shaheed Hospital. Even police officers on duty were manhandled and chased away by miscreants, he said.

The petitioner said bogus scanning machines were used to check national identity cards in a bid deprive his supporters of their voting right.

He said 4,000 to 5,000 of his supporters had not been issued ballot papers on the pretext that their NICs had been found to be fake through the machines placed without the permission of the Election Commission.

The petitioner said the returning officer was pressured and he had to request security measures for himself and leave his office.

He said the returning officer had requisitioned Rangers, but they were not allowed to enter polling stations, while police remained inside.

The petitioner said the consolidated statement of the result of count by the returning officer did not contain votes received through postal ballot. At least 3,500 voters had applied for postal ballot.

He further said the presiding officer of a polling station had not furnished a statement of the count, a requirement under the law. He said the presiding officer should not have announced the consolidated result without the statement of the presiding officer.