Karachi - Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan on Tuesday claimed that despite having majority they were defeated on various national and provincial assembly seats from Karachi and demanded of a third party audit of the excess use of ballot papers in the polls.
Addressing a press conference along with coordination committee member and newly elected MPA Kanwar Naved Jamil, the former MQM-P convener Farooq Sattar said that initially the results received by them in NA-245 were in their favour however, later when the entire result came out MQM-P candidate lost.
“In NA-245 our polling agents were forced out from the stations during the counting process and the lead through which the MQM-P candidate was winning was turned into a defeat,” Sattar who was the NA candidate on the constituency said.
He said that several presiding officers had narrated their stories regarding rigging behind the scenes and were afraid to speak up openly regarding it. “Now they had to come forward and soon several presiding and polling officers would narrate the stories of rigging witnessed by them,” he said.
He also asked as to how ballot papers were found outside the polling stations and now it should be informed as to how much ballot paper is being utilized by the commission. “It looks like that our votes were replaced by the other ballot papers to turn our victory into a defeat,” he said adding that this new trick to rig polls would only be a loss to PTI in future.
He further claimed that the cameras of polling stations were forced to be closed in order to replace the MQM-P votes. He called for the third party audit of ballot paper and said that it would prove the unjust and illegal use of ballot papers. “There is huge difference between the form 45 given by the presiding officers and returning officers,” he said adding that the claim made by ECP that polling agents were not taking form 45 was not mentioned by any of the presiding officer.
“Even the media is being barred from carrying out transparent coverage of the polls and counting process,” he said.
He also called for an inquiry into the closure of RTS system and said that it was halted to disrupt results transmission from presiding officers so that it could be manipulated later. He also welcomed that the CJP Justice Saqib Nisar had also expressed concern over polls process and asked him to call MQM-P so that they could inform him of the irregularities.
Kanwar Naveed said that excess ballot paper was used in the polls and a third party audit be carried out to ascertain how much paper was published, distributed, utilized and returned back to the commission.
He further asked the commission to satisfy the candidates who are alleging of the irregularities. “Closure of CCTV cameras after polling concluded also indicate of rigging bid during the counting process,” he said adding that probe be also carried out over force exit of polling agents.