Vote rigging was geared to ensure victory of one party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), an anecdotal survey of legal experts carried out by Business Recorder revealed. This is not the first time that vote rigging was evident in the general elections, they added.
Aftab Ahmed Bajwa, former General Secretary Supreme Court Bar Association, said the failure of Result Transmission System on polling day that delayed elections results raises several questions. "The Election Commission of Pakistan should have had an alternative in place to avoid such an eventuality," he added.
Bajwa acknowledged there is no concrete evidence of poll day rigging; and appreciated Imran Khan's statement that he was ready to open constituencies to probe rigging allegations. Senior advocate Tariq Asad told this correspondent that it was "managed and well planned rigging" in favour of PTI. "The establishment managed the result in a systematic and sophisticated way so that no single party would have a full mandate."
A senior lawyer on condition of anonymity stated that "in the coming days there will be a forward bloc of 25 to 30 MNAs and MPAs of PML-N against whom cases are pending in the National Accountability Bureau and FIA; and they will be asked to join PTI."
Sheikh Ahsan-ud-Din, former President Lahore High Court Bar, said after the announcement of the election schedule an environment was created that was not conducive for many political parties. He further contended that Form 45 which is mandatory was not given to political agents and they were evicted from the polling booths in many constituencies in South and Central Punjab. In recounting of results in many constituencies fudging was observed, he said.
Saeed Yousafzai, former Additional Advocate General of Punjab, said it was the third election in the last 15 years; if the ECP service (number 8300) did not choke in spite of people from all over Pakistan using it to find out the location of their polling stations, then why did the RTS fail at a 'critical time'.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan in his first speech after the poll results termed the general election as "the fairest" vote in the country's history, despite widespread allegations of rigging in favour of his Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.
President Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Shahbaz Sharif said his party rejects the result and added "the way the people's mandate has blatantly been insulted, it is intolerable." Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari rejected the election results of July 25 dismissing them as "colossal rigging in the history of Pakistan."
Leadership of other political parties, including MQM, PSP and MMA have alleged massive rigging and complained that their polling agents were evicted from ballot-booths by security officials in contravention of electoral rules.
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