PML-N orchestrates propaganda to make Daska by-polls controversial

ISLAMABAD: Senior leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Muhammad Usman Dar Thursday said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) orchestrated a propaganda campaign to make the NA-75 by-polls controversial.

Talking to media outside the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), he said the PML-N's propaganda was meant to demoralize the PTI workers as it knew that they (PML-N) had lost the election in Daska.

He said it was an unprecedented decision in the history of country, which manifested that the state institutions were completely independent.

Usman Dar added that in the past the PML-N, especially their leader Hamaza Shehbaz used to influence the by-elections by sitting in the particular constituencies.

He said the PML-N did not claim rigging in those constituencies where they won the by-elections such as Nowshera and Wazirabad.

The PTI leader said they would discuss the order of ECP with their legal team, adding the detailed decision was yet to come.

Earlier, referring to uproar of PML-N on NA-75 by-polls results, Usman Dar said it had designed a “story board” of rigging to strengthen its anti-state narrative.

He said the political role of Maryam Nawaz had been fully exposed as she blamed the state institutions for her party's apparent defeat in the Daska by-polls.

She was trying to make the state institutions controversial to get the results of her own choice, he added.

He said the PTI lawyer had submitted before the ECP with evidence that the PML-N candidate Nosheen Iftikhar had no objection on the results of 337 polling stations of the Daska by-polls.

Dar said the PML-N’s demand for reelection in the entire constituency was incomprehensible as first they called for opening 23 polling stations in the middle of night and then the next day their demand relegated to 20 polling stations.

As regards disappearance of the ECP staff from the constituency on the election day, he said the returning officer (RO) had admitted in the affidavit that neither they were disappeared nor were abducted rather they were late due to certain reasons.

He said out of 20 polling stations, results of six were even endorsed by the PML-N. The ROs had also been saying the same, he added.

Adding further, he said had the Punjab government used state machinery in the by-polls, the results of Wazirabad election would not have been the same.

Dar said Prime Minister Imran Khan always advocated for the free and fair elections, recalling his party’s struggle for opening of four constituencies where it claimed that the elections of 2013 were not fair.

He said it was only Prime Minister Imran Khan who had made an offer for re-polling in 20 polling stations.

The past regimes had not such moral courage, he added.

He said he was confident that the decision of ECP would prove the PTI’s stance. The party would accept the ECP decision, he added.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate from Daska Ali Asjad Malhi said he had gained 50,000 more votes in the by-polls as compared to the previous elections.