ISLAMABAD: The three points of a “pre-scan report” narrated by the PTI chief Imran Khan in a press talk outside the Nadra headquarters on Wednesday are misunderstood by him and these facts are neither rigging nor even irregularity.
PTI chief stated following three points which are also explained below. 1)- According to Nadra pre-scan report submitted by it before the election tribunal of NA-122, electoral rolls (computerised voting lists) were missing from polling bags of 24 polling stations. These lists bear complete data of voters along with their picture and on which all voters have to put their thumb impression before obtaining ballot papers and again putting thumb impressions on counterfoils. 2)- In case of 30 polling stations, duplication of ballot papers was observed. (Counterfoils of all ballot papers bear a unique serial number and polling stations are issued ballot paper books of specific serial numbers which cannot be found on other polling stations of the same constituency.) 3)- In case of 50 polling stations, ballot paper books were not found in specified polling bags of that polling station. Explanation to Point-1: It’s simple. Nadra is carrying out thumb impression verification of NA-122. There are two provincial constituencies, PP-147, PP-148, under this National Assembly constituency. When a voter enters in a polling station, he has to put his thumb impression on electoral rolls in the given column against his name. This electoral roll present in a polling station is same for National Assembly as well as provincial assembly. Polling bags for National Assembly constituency number are different from that of provincial assembly constituency. As electoral rolls are same for both national and provincial assembly constituencies, so some presiding officers put these rolls in bags specified for provincial assembly in some cases. This happens in so many cases. The missing electoral rolls can be found out from polling bags of PP-147 which are not opened so far. The first thing that many may have forgotten and is not being mentioned is that election tribunal of NA-122 has appointed a local commission which has inspected the whole record in presence of representatives of both the parties. The local commission never mentioned any missing rolls so basically it’s a confusion which could only be understood by understanding the election procedure. Explanation of Point-2: The local commission examined the whole record in presence of the PTI and PML-N representatives. There was no such finding whatsoever and it’s simply a misunderstanding. Basically, local commission has reported that there were “zero” unallocated (used or unused) counterfoil. Among allocated counterfoils, there were 350 used counterfoils and 87 unused which without a serial number. This happens because of a printing error where in very few cases one or two extra ballot papers are printed and as there are hundred ballot papers in a ballot paper book so there remains a possibility that one or two counterfoils of ballot papers do not bear a serial number in very few cases. And after such a lengthy exercise by the local commission in presence of both the political parties, only 350 counterfoils were found while 184,151 votes were polled in 284 polling stations of the constituency. This shows even this normal printing errors caused only 1.23 ballot paper per polling station. Also this is by no means an irregularity. As little thing will happen whenever you will print tens of millions of ballot papers. Explanation of Point-3: Again if record of some polling stations is being found in polling bags of some other polling station during this Nadra inspection, it is not even irregularity of polling staff. It is because all these polling bags were opened for the first time after polling day (May 11, 2013) and local commission not only opened all these polling bags in presence of representatives of all political parties but also inspected the whole record in detail and put the whole record back in the polling bags. If any such irregularity has to be there it could be highlighted at the time of first opening of polling bags and could not be discussed now as these polling bags were opened and closed after polling day. It was also found that as some polling stations are in same building so in some cases record of one polling station was found out in bags of others. Like during inspection by local commission, it was found that polling bag of polling station number 211 contained material of PP-148 which is a provincial constituency. After so much opening of bags after polling day, if the whole election material is present, it should be appreciated instead of scandalising it.
