LAHORE - Special Assistant to Chief Minister on Information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan has said that the people of Daska have rejected the hereditary politics of PML-N. Addressing a Press conference at the DGPR office here on Saturday, she said that those who used to chant slogans of ‘vote ko izzat do’ are not ready to accept the success of PTI candidate Ali Asjad Malhi. Dr Firdous said it is surprising that on the one hand, PML-N is celebrating its victory in Wazirabad while on the other hand, it is accusing the government of rigging in the by-election in Daska.
All this shows the double standards of PML-N, she said. She said despite being in power in KP, the PTI never interfered in the election process the way PML-N used to interfere. The Special Assistant said the 45-kilometer constituency includes remote areas as well as three provincial constituencies. All the Presiding Officers had conveyed the results to the Returning Officer through WhatsApp on the same night according to which PTI candidate Ali Asjad Malhi had won the election with 110957 while PML-N candidate Nosheen Iftikhar got 11879 votes. She said the PML-N always came into power by using unfair means and is not ready to accept the legitimate mandate of the people. Dr Firdous said in the by-election of Daska, PML-N found an empire of their choice that was facilitating them to steal the election process. Honest officers were threatened in the by-election as such traditions had been learnt by the fake princess from her absconder father, she said.
She alleged that both the District Returning Officer (DRO) and District Monitoring Officer (DMO) encouraged PML-N hooliganism. They, on the other hand, heavily fined supporters of PTI candidate, she stated. Similarly, PML-N goons threatened polling staff and resorted to firing to influence the election process, she added. She said the DRO and DMO imported from Ahsan Iqbal and Khawaja Saad Rafique constituencies respectively were seen sabotaging the election process and it was astounding that why the Election Commission didn’t take action against such dishonest elements. She said the Election Commission is a prestigious institution hence we don’t want to relate the biased and inclined behaviour of DMO and DRO with the Election Commission.
Dr Firdous alleged that Ahsan Iqbal, Mian Javed Latif, Uzma Bukhari, Atta Tarar and other PML-N leaders dictated DRO for the whole night to make the election controversial. When RO had received Form 45 then why he didn’t announce the result, she stated. She said that Maryam Nawaz is distorting the facts and doing poisonous propaganda against the government and state institutions just to make the election controversial. She said the PTI government strongly condemns the loss of precious human lives and sides with its workers tortured by PML-N goons. She said the people arrested for shedding the blood of innocent people in Daska were from N-League. Those who were responsible for creating chaos would be held accountable for their misdeeds, she added. She emphasised that the state totally supported the transparent election campaign and performed its duties diligently. However, it is regrettable that the cronies and dishonest elements patronized by PML-N were creating hurdles in the transformation of the system for maintaining transparency, she said. While criticizing the media for announcing the victory of the PML-N candidate without any authentic proof, she said there are black sheep everywhere and we have to deal with them.
The PEMRA is being approached to take action against the black sheep in media who misreported the election result so that they could be asked about the sources of their misreporting, she stated.