NA-120 by-poll: Shah Mehmood says Elections Commission's code of conduct being violated

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi has raised concerns over the violations of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)'s code of conduct being committed by the ruling party in NA-120. While addressing a press conference here on Thursday, he said they have reservation about the fairness of by election and their candidate for NA-120 Dr Yasmin Rashid raised many points with the ECP.
"It is unfortunate that our concerns are not addressed and the ECP has taken action only on paper," he added. He pointed out that Nadra could not verify 29,000 identity cards of voters residing in NA-120 and demanded to cancel votes of these people.
Qureshi drew the attention of the media towards violation of the ECP's code of conduct. He claimed that development activities in the constituency are still in progress, which does not give them a level playing to contest the elections. "Contractors from Gulberg and other areas are shifted to NA-120 to carry out development, leaving behind unfinished work," he added.
He objected to a VVIP protocol given to Nawaz Sharif's daughter, Maryam Nawaz, during her election campaign. He said she has the right to campaign but "why our access to voters in these areas was blocked," he questioned. He demanded an explanation for extending the VVIP protocol to Maryam. He also raised the issue of PTI's flex steamers being removed by the workers of the N-League and replaced them with the ruling party's banners. He said they had put up the flexes with the permission of the Parks and Horticulture Authority, but they were removed.
He said that in union councils 50 and 51, a large population consists of Pathans who are registered in NA-120's voter list and hold valid ID cards. He maintained that they are predominantly PTI supporters. "Asp per our information, the ID cards of these voters were blocked by the interior ministry with the intention of denying them their voting rights," he added.
Referring to the Multan Metro Bus scandal, the PTI leader said the project should be investigated. He disclosed that an audit report on the project will soon be released which will have many eye-opening revelations. He said the Multan Metro Bus is a fail project. A very small number of people in Multan us the metro bus. He continued that due to low demand of the bus service, around 22 buses were shifted to Lahore. "The quality of the project is very poor. Many escalators are not functional and toilets at bus station are in poor condition," he added.
He disclosed that a few N-League parliamentarians from Multan approached Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif with a demand of abandoning the idea of the metro bus project and instead the Punjab government should focus on improving the sewerage system in Multan. "They also asked for clean water, education and health facilities. The CM rejected their demands with a response that only his death could stop the project," he added.