Islamabad – Staff Reporter:
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday ruled that a re-election be held in the entire NA-75 Daska constituency after suspicions that the results may have been falsified.
The ECP, while hearing an application by PML-N candidate Syeda Nosheen Iftikhar, declared the by-poll held in the constituency on February 19 as null and void. A five-member commission, headed by the chief election commissioner, announced the decision and ordered that fresh elections be held in Daska on March 18.
The order was issued using the powers conferred on the ECP under Article 218 (3) of the Constitution and Article 19 (1) of the Election Act, 2017.
It noted that “on the day of the election, chaos was spread in the entire constituency”.
A detailed verdict will be issued later.
Reacting to the decision, PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz, who was the most vocal in demands for a re-election in NA-75, said “the people of Daska have gotten back their right.”
Referring to Prime Minister Imran Khan, she wrote that the “fake sadiq and ameen (honest and righteous) has been issued the certificate of vote thief” through the ECP verdict.
“Vote thief Imran Khan also turned out to be a kidnapper,” she alleged.
Maryam’s spokesperson Muhammad Zubair also spoke to the reporters and said that the government was “caught red-handed”, adding that the ruling party “adopted tactics that even the ECP was surprised”.
Zubair went on to say that the atmosphere in NA-75 on the day of the election was not conducive for voters, citing a firing incident in which two people were killed and three were injured. The former Sindh governor accused Prime Minister Imran Khan of being at the “forefront of the conspiracy” and said that criminal proceedings should be initiated against the latter.
