LAHORE (Staff Report) – An Election Tribunal on Monday ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to conduct a re-election in NA-125 after reaching a decision on rigging from the constituency in last general elections.
The verdict was reserved by the tribunal on April 30 when the lawyers had formally completed the arguments in the case.
Federal Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique was declared winner from this constituency during 2013 general elections, while PTI’s candidate Hamid Khan had challenged the election result.
The tribunal has also ordered to hold re-election in PP-155, which falls under the same constituency.
National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) was ordered to verify the votes in seven polling stations out of a total of 265 polling stations previously.
In 2013’s general elections PMLN candidate Khawaja Saad Rafiq had bagged 123,094 votes who was followed by the PTI candidate PTI Hamid Khan with 83,190 votes.
PMLN’s Mian Naseer Ahmad was elected from PP-155 where PTI’s Hafiz Farhat had challenged the result.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which had blamed the winning party for manipulating the poll results immediately after the elections, has time and again asked the government to verify the ballot in the four constituencies including NA-125.
PTI Chairman Imran Khan had led a long march to Islamabad in August 2014 to demand an inquiry into the allegations of rigging which was followed by a 126 days long sit-in of his followers.
Earlier in April this year the ruling party, PMLN, and PTI agreed to constitute a judicial commission to investigate the allegations of rigging which started functioning in the mid of last month.
