PTI lawyer sought CNIC numbers of 93,000 voters from Nadra

ISLAMABAD: PTI lawyer Anees Hashmi admits that he has asked Nadra to provide details of CNIC numbers of 93,000 thumb impressions not readable by Nadra machines during course of the hearing of NA-122 tribunal hearing petition filed by PTI chief Imran Khan against speaker National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq.
The statement of PTI’s senior lawyer has refuted statement of top PTI leadership including party chief as well as party spokesperson Shireen Mazari’s official statement on Monday that no one asked Nadra to submit any supplementary report and that the authority has submitted the report on its own to please the government.
Anees Hashmi while talking to The News said that he had asked Nadra to provide annexures as mentioned in its scan report pertaining to 93,000 CNIC numbers whose thumb impressions were not readable by Nadra system. Anees said neither has he asked Nadra to submit any supplementary report nor has the tribunal passed any such order. He was of the view that for submission of any report, tribunal’s proper order was a must and Nadra did wrong by submitting this supplementary report. Asked when he was admitting that he has asked Nadra for provision of certain data which was missing in the scan-report and Nadra has submitted the same in the form of a supplementary report then what was wrong with it, he insisted that even if he has demanded, Nadra must have submitted data only on the order of the tribunal. He also added that just like him the PML-N lawyer also demanded that Nadra should submit details of more than 6,000 votes of which CNIC numbers were not complete or illegible and Nadra has responded to the query in its supplementary report and subsequently this new report is favourable to the government. Nadra was also asked to provide enlarged images of thumb impressions so these can be examined. PTI chief Imran Khan has stated outside the Supreme Court after the submission of Nadra scan-report that he himself would examine all 93,000 CNIC numbers, which according to Nadra, were correct but were not readable.
When The News contacted top legal expert Azhar Siddique to know if Nadra has committed any illegality he replied, “Nadra has committed no illegality whatsoever by mere submission of a report containing information sought by lawyers of two parties during the course of hearing but it is up to the tribunal to admit this report and allow is to be on record or decide otherwise.” He said that if cross-examination on evidence is completed no new evidence is allowed to come on record. Azhar said that it is discretion of the tribunal to admit this report or not but it is absolutely incorrect to say that Nadra has done anything wrong by submitting information which was sought by the lawyers of two parties.
Lawyers say Nadra’s supplementary report is cause of anxiety as it comprehensively elaborates some basic points, which were causing confusion. A PML-N lawyer explained that according to Nadra scan report there were more than 6,000 CNIC numbers, which were either incomplete or illegible. Now when lawyers of both parties sought more information, Nadra explained that even these CNIC numbers were correct in most of the cases and presiding officers while noting down those numbers, wrote one digit illegibly or incorrectly or missed one digit. Nadra report explains that in some cases one digit was replaced with another (like ‘8’ was written in place ‘5’, or was not written at all). According to PML-N lawyer, Nadra report also adds that if this error of one-digit could not have occurred while handwriting these numbers the rest of the CNIC numbers were not only correct but were also corresponding to correct polling station of the same constituency NA-122. This very fact has shaken many and Nadra has elaborated by giving correct CNIC numbers registered in same constituency, NA-122, and that one-digit which was missed, illegible or incorrectly recorded. After submission of this report, even minute chances of commission of any irregularity at least in case of these more than 6,000 votes, which earlier was causing some confusion, become non-existent. However, bringing this truth before the commission has annoyed PTI and the party is irrationally attacking a national institution like Nadra.
In yet another development it has been disclosed by PML-N lawyers that PTI has provided Nadra four CNIC numbers which Nadra has shown as “correct CNIC numbers registered in NA-122” in its scan-report but these CNIC numbers in fact were of some other constituency. This query was quite disturbing for Nadra as it could raise questions on the credibility of its scan-report. However, in-depth investigations by Nadra revealed that these four voters were registered in NA-122 during May 2013 and they managed to transfer their vote to some other constituency later on. PML-N lawyers believe that same was done to mislead the tribunal and cause aspersion on Nadra report.
Earlier, PTI chief Imran Khan had said outside Nadra headquarters that Nadra had found unallocated votes and duplicate serial numbers during scrutiny of record for preparing pre-scan report. However, same statement was proved completely untrue and false when pre-scan report came on scene after same was presented before tribunal. Nadra, after complete examination of ballot papers, has also declared that all ballot papers used were validly printed ballot papers by government press and none was “printed from Urdu Bazaar” as was claimed by the PTI chief. ‘Credibility’ will be the basic question that would be asked from PTI leaders in future as whatever they stated so far has been proved false.
PTI spokesperson Shireen Mazari said that Nadra is under pressure of the federal government and is working to please the rulers. She specifically said that Nadra has submitted the supplementary report just to please the government and that it was never demanded by PTI lawyers or the tribunal itself.