ATTOCK, Jan 24: The Citizens Group on Electoral Process has exposed pre-poll rigging activities in Attock and now it is up to the Election Commission of Pakistan to ensure free, fair and transparent elections in the district.
This was stated by independent candidate from NA-57 (Attock-1) and former minister of state Malik Amin Aslam at a press conferee here on Thursday.
Besides his supporters, independent candidate from PP-16 and former provincial minister Col (retired) Shujah Khanzada was also present on the occasion.
Mr Amin said the fact-finding mission of the group, which visited the district on January 15 to review the pre-poll rigging complaints, had pointed out a number of irregularities.
“They discovered that the former Punjab government on November 20, which was its last day in office, approved service extension of employees of various district government departments bypassing the ministries of law, finance, local government and office of the chief secretary Punjab in violation of rules and regulations. The services were extended only through a simple letter issued by the former chief minister’s office that too was without a date.
The report also indicated that recruitments of over 1,600 police constables in the district had an angle of political patronage, he said.
“The report has endorsed the reservations of the opposition front that all extension and police recruitments were illegal and a political bribe to rig/influence the elections,” he added. Moreover, the report also discovered that the district nazim of Attock was openly violating the Representation of People’s Act 1976, as large hoardings and posters of the pro-nazim aspirants carried his portraits. Most of the illegal publicity material related to Eman Waseem (NA-57), Chaudhry Gulzar Waseem (NA-59) and former chief minister Punjab Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi (NA-58) who are the daughter, son-in-law and brother in-law of the district nazim, respectively, he said.
He said the rigging evidences collected by the mission were an eye-opener for the ECP and the government, adding more evidences would be collected in order to apprise the people and the international observers of the rigging plan of the district government and the king’s party.
However, he appreciated the district returning office for playing an important role against misuse of postal ballots by approving only 1,672 ballot papers for the three National Assembly seats against 15,000 planned by the PML-Q.
Speaking on the occasion, Col Khanzada claimed that the joint opposition front had foiled the rigging plan of the district nazim, who wanted to get elected his three relatives from all the NA seats of the district.