Mazari accuses govt of lying over NA-122 commission findings

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Secretary Information Shireen Mazari on Saturday accused the federal government of telling 'white lies' by saying that electoral rigging did not take place in NA-122.

“For the govt to claim that no rigging had been found [by the judicial commission] is a blatant lie,” she said in a statement issued Saturday.

The PTI information secretary said that lawyers from both the Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) and the PTI were present at the hearing today before the judge of judicial commission tasked to probe the rigging allegations in the constituency.

The judge said that his mandate was to see what irregularities had happened and now it was up to the Tribunal judge to pass a judgement on rigging in the light of the irregularities that have been put on the record, said Mazari.

Mazari said major irregularities were found by the commission, including the fact that Form XIV and XV have not been found in many of the polling bags while different coloured ballot papers were also found.

“In those form XV where serial numbers are missing, the relevant polling stations' results will be declared null and void,” she said.

Mazari said that the commission judge referred to 'minor discrepancies' which, when clarified, adds up to 2800 votes in 280 polling stations.

The PTI senior official said the commission has substantiated PTI's claims on rigging, and that its findings were also are in line with the rigging highlighted by Aitzaz Ahsan in his white paper on NA 124.