The PTI slammed the PML-N government on Thursday for allegedly employing rigging tactics in support of its candidate in Lahore’s NA-129 by-election.
The by-election is scheduled for Sunday. The party claimed that campaigning began with state personnel tearing down the PTI candidate’s banners and posters, managing polling stations and then appointing subordinates of the PML-N candidate, who has served as chairman of the Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) Board of Directors (BoD).
The PTI leaders allege that this amounts to an orchestrated attempt to tilt the electoral playing field in favour of the ruling party’s candidate, Muhammad Nauman.
The NA-129 seat, vacated after the death of Mian Muhammad Azhar, is being contested by his nephew, Chaudhry Arslan, who was nominated by Azhar’s son and former PTI Punjab acting president Hammad Azhar. The junior Azhar is absconding as he is wanted by the state in different cases.
The PTI is contesting the by-election only in Lahore, where the seat was vacated, while boycotting all by-elections in Sargodha, Mianwali, Sahiwal, Faisalabad, DG Khan and Muzaffargarh. The polls were scheduled after PTI MPAs were disqualified by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
Incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan had strictly instructed the party leadership not to contest the by-elections as it would be tantamount to legitimising the disqualification of party legislators.
“The disqualified MPAs had believed in the PTI and didn’t desert it despite all kinds of hardships and these seats belonged to them. Our participation in the by-election will mean that the PTI is legitimising their act of disqualifying party legislators,” Imran was quoted as saying in a post published on his X account.
Before the election campaign could pick up, local police officials, caught on video footage, were seen removing banners of PTI candidate Chaudhry Arslan, who is contesting as an independent candidate on the ‘geyser’ election symbol.
The PTI leaders alleged the government had posted Lesco officials as presiding officers in the by-election.
“It is an interesting coincidence that the PML-N candidate is Lesco chairman and the presiding officers have also been picked from the same company,” Hammad wrote in a post on X.
He included four appointment orders of the polling staff in his post, showing that all four presiding officers were selected from Lesco.
Lesco CEO Ramzan Butt, however, rebutted Hammad’s post, stating that the appointment of some company officers as presiding officers for the by-election was the decision of the ECP and not Lesco or any other government organisation.
“We have not appointed our officers as presiding officers (POs) for performing election duty, but the ECP,“ the Lesco CEO told Dawn. “In previous elections, too, Lesco officers performed duties as POs. It is a routine matter.”
According to another senior Lesco officer, the company’s current chairman of the board was not the PML-N candidate, as he served as BoD head two years ago.
“The post of BoD chairman is honorary and the person who serves in this slot is not required to contest elections two to three years after leaving the job. So it’s ridiculous to say that Nauman is the current chairman of the Lesco BoD, as he left the position two years before,” the official maintained.
Hammad also alleged that the incumbent government was taking different administrative measures “due to public fear in NA-129”.
In his X post, Hammad alleged some POs were summoned to the Chief Minister’s House and issued threats, while the government was also employing other tactics to keep voters away, frustrated and afraid.
The PTI leader further claimed that the government relocated 51 polling stations several kilometres away from populated areas, transferred votes from one area to polling stations in another, removed PTI publicity material and arrested workers under police supervision, issued threats to local leaders over the phone, and prohibited Arslan from running his election campaign
The PTI leader further accused the authorities of moving the returning officer’s office even farther from the constituency and “presenting an administration tout as a fake PTI candidate”.
The latter comment referred to PTI leader Bajash Khan Niazi, who was issued a show-cause notice and eventually stripped of his basic party membership over a serious violation of party discipline.
The PTI issued a “public alert” on its letterhead stating that Niazi also ran a campaign against the PTI candidate and contested the election. It added that he was supporting the PML-N candidate.
Meanwhile, Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly Moeen Riaz Qureshi said that the “Form-47 Punjab government” had created a police state and was harassing the party candidate and workers.
“Our workers, after facing this government’s fascism, are standing tall and strong,” he wrote in a post on X, urging voters in NA-129 to come out in droves and vote for Arslan, while remembering the services of Mian Muhammad.
