ROs in Punjab were part of systematic rigging: Imran

Returning Officers in Punjab were part of systematic rigging as they stuffed the polling bags with the help of the PML-N leaders, which was revealed during the judicial commission proceeding. This was stated by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday while talking to reporters outside Supreme Court. "ROs had a field day in Punjab. Insha'Allah this will come to light soon as to who was controlling the ROs," he said.
Lashing out at former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, he said that he was waiting for the defamation case filed by Chaudhry against him. "Iftikhar Chaudhry called the ROs to the Supreme Court and congratulated them for holding transparent elections," he said. In NA-21, the constituency of Captain Safdar, the Form-XV recovered from the bags was empty but it was filled up when submitted with the enquiry commission in the Supreme Court, he said.
"The invoice serial numbers on the Form-XV are also different from the packing invoice ....a mistake in hurry," he said, adding that hundreds of such frauds would be brought before the public. The Forms-XV of Khawaja Saad Rafique constituency also did not match the packing invoice and serial numbers that were recovered from the polling bags and later presented in the commission, he said.
"Our counsel has proven today before the commission that the elections were neither transparent nor conducted as per law," he said, adding that Pirzada has proved systematic rigging. NADRA's job was verification of thumb prints on ballot papers but it submitted a supplementary report in NA-122 to justify the wrongdoings, he said. Khan said that his party was satisfied with expertise of the NADRA as it had done a good job in identifying fake votes in different constituencies. "NADRA first said that 93,000 votes in my constituency cannot be verified and then NADRA chairman says that around 98 percent of these votes are correct," he said.
"We have witnessed the behaviour of the election commission. N-league and the commission were on the same page during proceedings of the enquiry commission," he said. Khan said that Punjab's election commission had given a field day to its Returning Officers as they got printed extra ballot papers in different constituencies. "The recommendations were just to publish three to four percent extra ballots .... RO of NA-125 in enquiry commission said he asked for some 70,000 extra ballots but he didn't know from where more 50,000 ballots came in the constituency," he said. Talking about the Forms-XV, he said that the PTI counsel Abdul Hafeez Pirzada has presented complete details of the missing forms before the judicial commission as there is no record of the extra ballot papers used in different constituencies.