ISLAMABAD, March 26 A PML-Q leader said in the Senate on Friday that she had witnessed no sign of rigging at any polling station in Gujrat during the March 24 by-election, causing embarrassment to Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Leader of Opposition Wasim Sajjad who were in the house.

She made the statement after a token walkout by PML-Q leaders over what they claimed massive rigging by the PML-N candidate.

Returning to the house, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said that PML-Q leader Begum Najma Hameed, who was a witness to the rigging would tell the house what she had seen in Gujrat during polling on the day.

But Begum Najmad Hameed stunned the house by saying that she would swear by God she had seen no rigging at any polling station during her visit and 12-day stay in Gujrat.

She said she had visited 28 polling stations, talked to party workers, polling staff and found absolutely no evidence of any rigging.

She said no party worker or official had told her of any vote fraud.

She said that during the entire process she saw no clash between rivals, adding that clashes might have taken place after the polling process had been over.

She claimed she had never witnessed such clean and fair election in her entire life as no clash took place during her stay in the constituency.

Earlier, speaking on a point of order, Leader of Opposition Wasim Sajjad referred to an NGO which had “extensively worked” during the by-election and “found several examples of use of fake ballots and other methods of riggings”.

PML-N parliamentary leader Ishaq Dar challenged the allegations levelled by Q-League leaders and said that anyone with any proof of rigging should go and seek relief from the election commission or election tribunal.

Mr Dar termed the allegations an unfortunate legacy of the Q-League leadership never to accept defeat. He said he could claim with full authority that Gujrat by-election was the “best example of transparency and fairplay”.

He recalled that Chaudhry Shujaat, after losing elections in 2008, had blamed Gen Musharraf for his defeat.

He said that a tradition had taken roots in the country to make such excuses after defeat in elections.

BALOCHISTAN FARMERS Senator Haji Lashkri of the PPP staged a walkout to register protest over failure of water and power minister to meet a delegation of farmers of Balochistan in Islamabad.

He said that Balochistan had been severely hit by over 10 years of drought, now aggravated by power loadshedding.

He said up to five million trees had been cut down, tubewells turned off and people were perplexed by the grim situation.

Haji Lashkri said that the farmers' delegation was in the federal capital to apprise policymakers of their grievances, but Raja Pervaiz Ashraf was not meeting it.

He said that the minister had repeatedly promised to provide relief to the farmers, but nothing had been done.

Senator Dr Abdul Malik said on a point of order that the water and power minister should visit Quetta to solve electricity-related problems of Balochistan.