LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz has claimed that PML-N workers caught persons working for the PTI “red-handed” allegedly stealing bagfuls of votes cast in NA-75 by-polls on Friday.
The PML-N Vice President released a series of videos as supposed proof of the claim on different socials media websites. In the first, “Our people caught Presiding Officer of Virtual University Polling Station Wazirabad running away with polling bag, the seal of which was broken. He has been brought before DRO,” she added.
Our people caught Presiding Officer of Virtual University Polling Station Wazirabad running away with polling bag, the seal of which was broken. He has been brought before DRO. pic.twitter.com/bhCuEQdgN1
— Maryam Nawaz Sharif (@MaryamNSharif) February 19, 2021
She begins by claiming that PTI people were caught “red-handed stealing bagfuls of votes”. She said PML-N MPA Adil Chatta and Ataa Tarar were the ones to have caught the “culprit”.
Maryam claimed the seal of the bag of votes was also broken and further accused the police of being “a part of the plan to steal votes for PTI”.
PTI people caught red handed stealing bagfuls of votes by PMLN MPA Adil Chatta and Ataa Tarar. Seal was also broken. Police was a part of the plan to steal votes for PTI. pic.twitter.com/4M2RJCITrP
— Maryam Nawaz Sharif (@MaryamNSharif) February 19, 2021
In another post she wrote, Maryam also shared a video of a man sitting silently alongside a bag of votes. PML-N workers can be heard asking him where he was taking the bag of votes.
He was caught red handed. PMLN workers did not allow him to escape. Rangers also present. pic.twitter.com/rEhf5gS8su
— Maryam Nawaz Sharif (@MaryamNSharif) February 19, 2021
“We had sent him in along with the Rangers and he was taking this bag with him,” a man says. The man in a subsequent video is identified as a presiding officer and accused of stuffing the said bag with fake votes.
He was caught red handed. PMLN workers did not allow him to escape. Rangers also present. pic.twitter.com/rEhf5gS8su
— Maryam Nawaz Sharif (@MaryamNSharif) February 19, 2021
It is worth mentioning here the voting process had commenced for by-elections in four constituencies including two vacant seats of the National Assembly (NA) and two seats of the provincial assemblies in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is holding by-elections on four vacant seats including NA-45 Kurram, NA-75 Sialkot, PP-51 Gujranwala and PK-63 Nowshera.
The NA-75 constituency in Tehsil Daska, District Sialkot was vacated after the death of PML-N’s MNA Syed Iftikharuddin in August 2020, while Punjab Assembly seats PP-51 Wazirabad fell vacant after the death of PML-N’s Chaudhry Shaukat Manzoor Cheema in June 2020 due to coronavirus.
Nosheen Iftikhar, daughter of late Syed Iftikharuddin, has been given a party ticket in the NA-75 constituency. A tough contest is being expected between her and PTI’s Amjad Malhi.
TLP’s Muhammad Khalil Sindhu and the other seven independent candidates are also running for the seat. According to the ECP, the number of registered voters in the constituency is 494,300. As many as 360 polling stations have been set up out of which 155 are declared sensitive and 25 are highly sensitive.
