Nawaz calls for constitutional action against PM Khan after Daska report

Suspicions of rigging arose when 20 presiding officers suddenly vanished from polling stations in Daska by-elections in February

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday called for strict action against all ‘perpetrators of the fraud’, who were exposed in the Daska report that was released last week.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supreme leader tweeted that Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP’s) report had proven that Prime Minister Imran Khan and his followers ‘stole the election in Daska’.

He recalled how the Result Transmission System (RTS) was shut down in 2018 elections and furthered that it was a constitutional imperative to act against all involved in the Daska incident.

Irregularities in the results had emerged in the Daska NA-75 by-poll election in February. Around 20 presiding officers (POs) randomly disappeared, raising concern that there was possible rigging in the by-poll. Violence also ensued at one of the polling stations, which resulted in the deaths of two workers, one from Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and the other from PML-N.

A report that investigated the incident revealed on Friday that the election officials responsible for a smooth process, were involved in a ‘pre-planned scam’ to rig the elections. It also emerged that PTI leader and former special assistant to the Punjab chief minister Firdous Ashiq Awan appeared at a pre-poll meeting at the Daska assistant commissioner’s house to ‘manipulate’ the election proceedings in favour of the current ruling party.

In the other incident that Sharif referenced in his tweet, the RTS was shut down abruptly during the General Elections 2018. As the results stopped pouring in, then ECP secretary Babar Yaqoob Fateh Mohammad announced that the RTS system ‘collapsed’ unknowingly. Denying that the shut-down was technical, National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) officials said that RTS was functioning smoothly during the alleged breakdown.