Record of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) establishes that extra ballot papers were printed in routine while this routine was same even in case of constituencies of Punjab won by the PTI leaders like Imran Khan, Ghulam Sarwar Khan or even Javed Hashmi. An ECP report prepared much earlier also eliminates confusion over printing of relatively more ballot papers in case of only one constituency, NA-125. This report along with all other documents is part of record already submitted before the inquiry commission. PTI leaders have tried to give an impression as if they have proved something before the commission.But they have not presented any documents or proofs before the commission and rather were pointing towards some facts present in the ECP record. It has been discussed in detail and the ECP has also explained it many times that extra ballot papers are needed not for a constituency but for each and every polling station of a constituency. There are around 250 polling stations, at an average, in every National Assembly constituency in Punjab and even if 150 to 200 extra ballot papers are printed the minimum number would be 50,000. Extra ballot papers are needed as complete books containing 100 ballot papers are supplied to every polling station and also spare ballots are needed as a new ballot paper is issued if initially issued is damaged. A little less or a little more than 50,000 to 60,000 extra ballot papers were published as compared to number of registered voters in case of majority of Punjab constituencies including in case of constituencies from where the PTI senior leaders won. It is up to the understanding of returning officer that they send demand for printing of how much ballot papers depending on number of polling stations and many other factors including past experiences in those areas. However, basic point is that whether there is any single evidence of those extra ballot papers being misused? If the number of ballot papers issued on all polling stations in presence of polling agents of the political parties is same as is present in polling bags even now, there is not a single fake ballot paper and all used or unused ballot papers are same as were issued by the ECP and most importantly the unused ballot papers (genuine as issued by the ECP) are present in polling record then all such criticism is unwarranted. According to a report by Usman Manzoor in The News, the PTI and its chief officially stated many times that all votes not verified by Nadra forensic report of NA-122 are “fake votes” and that Nadra only verified 73,478 votes. On the other hand, the PTI chief himself secured 84,517 votes from the same constituency meaning thereby at least 11,039 votes secured by Imran Khan himself were 100 percent fake. Only in case of one constituency, NA-125, around 120,000 extra ballot papers than registered voters, 429,485 were published which was obviously much higher quantity than usually needed. The ECP has prepared a report on this extra demand by the returning officer of NA-125. According to the report, the returning officer has explained that there were so many polling stations on irregular positions and with regard to two provincial constituencies (PP-155 & PP-156), under this national assembly constituency NA-125, he needed much more ballot papers, around 550,000, to amicably tackle both provincial constituencies. The RO, thus as a usual practice, demanded same quantity for the National Assembly constituency, NA-125, equal to the sum of required ballot papers for the provincial assembly constituencies under it. Total number of registered voters in PP-155 was 246,334 whereas in PP-156 this was 182,781. Even then this number of extra ballot papers is quite high but this happened only in case of one constituency. Now, interestingly, many polling stations of this constituency have been examined by Nadra and not a single fake ballot paper was found. It has been revealed and verified by ECP concerned people that all the unused ballot papers are not only present, safe in the record, counted many times already and can be counted once again. Polling in NA-125 was held in 265 polling stations and there was no allegation of misuse of ballot papers by any polling agent on the polling day. It is interesting that some allegations were levelled by the PTI through an election petition later on but none of them was regarding any misuse of ballot papers. The allegations, whatever, were all set aside completely by the election tribunal in its judgement. It is very important that after all allegations, including that of printing of fake ballot papers from Urdu Bazaar of Lahore, proved fake, the PTI was completely relying on the issue of printing of extra ballot papers which was modified on Tuesday and extended to some VIP constituencies. After latest revelations from the ECP record, the PTI will have to come with something new. Cross examination of major witnesses is almost complete and the PTI counsel has yet to ask questions regarding systematic rigging.
