ISLAMABAD  -    The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday rejected the allegations of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s allegation regarding the absence of Form 45 in the 2018 general elections.

In a statement issued here, the ECP said the allegations made by Bilawal were baseless and there was no credibility in these allegations.

The explained that according to the Elections Act 2017 section 95(10), the forms 45, 46, 47, 48, and 49 were uploaded on the official website within 14 days for the public inspection.

The statement further elaborated that all these forms can be seen on the official website www.ecp.gov.pk of ECP.

Addressing a public meeting in Dera Ismail Khan on July 6, Bilawal had claimed that Prime Minister Imran Khan had questioned only four constituencies, but the form 45 in 2018 general elections was absent from all over the country.

Reacting to the ECP claim, Secretary General PPPP Senator Farhatullah Babar has issued the following rejoinder to the statement of Election Commission of Pakistan:

“The Pakistan People Party Parliamentarians is surprised and dismayed over the insistence of the Election Commission of Pakistan that all data pertaining to Form-45 containing the results of vote count of the 2018 polls was uploaded on its website and described it as twisting facts unbecoming of a Constitutional body like the ECP.

“Form-45 containing vote count results was a basic document of vote count. It is mandatory that it is also signed by the polling agents of candidates contesting elections. An unsigned Form-45 has no legal value. This is what the Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has been stating all along. “PPPP’s election Cell headed by Senator Taj Haider has complete data of Form 45 and other election related forms painstakingly prepared byFAFEN (Free and Fair Elections Network) pertaining to all the 78,467 polling stations for National Assembly in the country.

“95 pc Form-45 (numbering 74,302) do not bear signatures of polling agents. Only 65 Forms 45 bear the signatures of polling agents of Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians.

“The ECP sometime back responding to it had asserted that polling agents of losing candidates left the polling stations on their own and that is why the forms bore no signatures.

“Polling agents of most candidates were driven out of the polling station no doubt as the ECP was helpless. Even if the Presiding Officers were unable to record that polling agents had been driven out they should have at least recorded, as required by law, that polling agents had left on their own. Moreover the ECP should at least have been able to produce Form-45 duly signed by the polling agents of winning candidates who should have been eager to sign their victory certificates. None of it was done for reasons not known.

“Some figures will help illustrate it further. In Baluchistan not one out of 2,427 Form-45 were found signed by a polling agents, in Sindh only 74 out of 17, 493 and in Punjab only 27 out of 43,971 Form-45 have been found signed by PML-N polling agents and 39 by the polling agents of PTI candidates.

“In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa only 24 Forms 45 out of a total of 13,790 were found signed by polling agents of PTI, 13 of PML-N and 18 by the polling agents of PPP. “In the two constituencies NA 246 and NA 200 where Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was a candidate none of Form-45 is signed by the polling agent.

“No unsigned form-45 can be regarded as document authenticating election results. ECP insistence on flaunting unsigned Form-45 as proof of authenticity of vote count passes comprehension and only raises further questions”.