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LAHORE: Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, Shehbaz Sharif, has written a letter to the chief election commissioner (CEC), urging him to initiate legal action against all characters behind Daska by-poll fraud involving overnight disappearance of about 20 presiding officers.
In a letter written to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has requested him to move court against the officers, besides exposing those in the federal and provincial governments responsible for giving illegal instructions.
Referring to the damning fact-finding inquiry reports released by the electoral watchdog, Shehbaz stressed that both reports contained “compelling, indisputable facts”, adding that they “constitute a damning indictment of the Punjab government for pre-meditated and systematic rigging of the by-election in NA 75 on 19th February 2021”.
“Investigate and take action against those responsible at the federal and provincial levels,” he said. Shehbaz pointed out that overwhelming evidence of the rigging was available immediately after the by-election, claiming it was one of the most controversial by-polls in the country’s history.
“Violations such as the sudden disappearance of 20 presiding officers, aerial firing to terrorise voters, killing of two persons, deliberate slowing down of polling, law and order situation, are all proofs that corroborate the concerns that rigging had indeed taken place,” he noted in the letter.
The opposition leader also recalled that the contentious by-poll had been declared null and void by the commission on 25 February, 2021, and a fresh re-poll was ordered. The decision was upheld by the Supreme Court of Pakistan on 2 April, 2021, he added.
“Both reports, in effect, confirm the widespread view that the illegal events on the polling day were pre-planned and executed in connivance and with the active collaboration of the district authorities at the behest of the Punjab government,” he concluded.
The Election Commission of Pakistan had earlier this month formally released two inquiry reports about the mysterious disappearance of 20 presiding officers during the February by-election in Daska, stating that the senior officials of the police and the district administration were “already in the knowledge of what was going on and they allowed to let the things happen as per planning.”
