Maryam Nawaz blames ‘agencies’ of being intricate in suspected rigging in Daska by-poll

Maryam Nawaz blames 'agencies' of being intricate in suspected rigging in Daska by-poll
Photo: DawnNewsTV

The PML-N has conceded a petition to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), ordering a re-election in the whole NA-75 constituency in lieu of 20 polling stations, the party’s vice president Maryam Nawaz apprised the media on Wednesday, adding that agencies under the premier were intricated in the rigging. 

While talking to the media in Lahore, Maryam litigated the ruling PTI of being involved in “very disciplined rigging”, and that the voters had been “frayed” in order to prevent them from participating in elections and voting. She uttered that the contentions that the possible rigging was done on a local level were not correct. 

“Agencies, which come under prime minister Imran Khan, the vote plunderer, were involved in the rigging,” she declared and informed that she will “expose the names” if the government does not come faithfully. 

When that gone in vain, Maryam said, polling stations were closed”by design” and voting process was forcefully stopped for up to six hours in some polling stations. She said that videos, which she herself had posted on social platform Twitter, displayed how people had break the door of a polling station and entered inside. 

“When they saw that regardless of this historic, undisguised and clear rigging, PML-N was still in the leading position, they abducted 20 officials in the cover of fog,” she said. “This is not only me saying this, Election Commission’s press release is also mentioning it. It said that when they arrived back, results were changed. 

“After this, how can I accept re-poll in 20 polling stations?  The vote of whole Daska was theft, how can we accept this, we can’t.” 

Maryam’s declaration come days after Prime Minister Imran Khan requested PTI’s constituent from Daska to request for re-polling in 20 polling stations, the results of which is being doubted by the PML-N and the ECP. 

Last week, the ECP had said in a declaration that it suspected that results of 20 polling stations was falsified. 

In her media conversation today, the PML-N’s vice president also admonished the ECP to confirm that action is taken against the administrators who were supposedly involved in rigging. 

The by-election in the NA-75 constituency was blemished by ferocity after two people were murdered and three others battered in a firing episode at a polling station in Daska. 

Talking at the presser, Maryam also condemned the refusal of PML-N’s Pervaiz Rashid nomination documents for the Senate election, saying that “the entire world knows why he was disallowed”. She acclaimed Rashid as a man who had “nothing but his admiration, principles and fight for democracy”. 

She also paid acknowledgement to her cousin and PML-N leader Hamza Shehbaz, who secured bail today in a money laundering instance. Maryam said that Hamza had “foregone a lot” for the party and “didn’t hesitate once” despite being confined. She added that the “prejudice” against Hamza and other PML-N leaders who are nominated in different cases did not bring any extras for the government as the courts “couldn’t discover [any proof of] dishonesty or wrongdoing”. She also warned that such “discrimination is not without consequences”.

The PML-N leader, in reply to a question, said that she had an “upright stance” regarding the government’s proposed lawmaking to ensure show of hands throughout the Senate elections so that horse trading can be restricted. 

“We received phone calls saying ‘please sit with Imran Khan and pass this legislation’ but we said no, we won’t give him any liberation,” she told reporters. She demanded that the government was pushing for the legislation to “save its sinking ship” and that is why it propagated an ordinance and later took the staple to the Supreme Court. 

“If the Supreme Court provides Imran Khan any respite, Pakistan’s people will consider it to be an unfair decision,” she said and enquired why PM Imran had not assumed about limpidity in the last Senate election. 

“If you (PM Imran) drag the Supreme Court into this and make it a revelry in this dirty political game, we will uncover you,” she cautioned. 

“My upright stance on this is that the Parliament should argument on this because this is a constitutional article so an alteration can only be familiarized by the Parliament but not [by] this fake government,” she declared. 

In response to a question, she said that “if the establishment is not neutral, then it should be”. At the same time, she said that the establishment “should not support a government that has made the lives of people difficult. It is not good for the institution.”