The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday declared by-polls held in NA-75 as declared and ordered to hold polling again on March 18.
During today's hearing, PTI lawyer Barrister Ali Zafar addressed the disappearance of the staff of 20 polling stations in the constituency and said that it was "not right to say that a delay in results means they were altered".
"The manner of delay can give rise to suspicion [that] results were altered," ECP's Sindh member responded. Barrister Zafar pointed out that there was no set time for presiding officers to report at the returning officer's office. He further said that phone batteries die after an entire day of usage.
"Did everyone's phone battery die, including the driver?" asked ECP's Khyber Pakhutnkhwa member Irshad Qaiser.
The PTI lawyer insisted that the RO had requested a re-election in 14 polling stations on the basis of speculation. He added that there was no controversy in 337 out of 360 polling stations and that an "attempt was made to prove a rigging conspiracy". According to the lawyer, the late arrival of a presiding officer was "not an illegal thing [on the basis of] which a re-election should be conducted".
Meanwhile, PML-N lawyer Salman Akram Raja demanded a forensic audit of votes cast in the 20 polling stations whose results are questionable.
The by-election in the NA-75 constituency last week was marred by violence after two people were killed and three others injured in a firing incident at a polling station in Daska.
A day later, the ECP had said that it suspected the results of 20 polling stations had been falsified in the by-election for the NA-75 (Daska) constituency as the PML-N alleged massive rigging. The commission said results of the NA-75 constituency were received with "unnecessary delay", adding that it tried to contact the presiding officers several times but with no success.
While the PML-N had alleged massive rigging, the PTI had claimed to win the election and had lashed out at the opposition party for only accepting those results that came out in their favour.
Prime Minister Imran Khan, however, tweeted on Monday that he had requested the PTI candidate to ask for re-polling at the 20 'suspect' polling stations.