Opposition candidates seek NA speaker’s disqualification

SWABI: Candidates belonging to four opposition parties here on Thursday challenged the local government election results of the Swabi Tehsil chairman and demanded a re-polling.

The Awami National Party (ANP), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazal (JUIF), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) and Imtiaz Zeb of Qaumi Watan Party (QWP), who had already rejected the election results, gathered at the district headquarters and marched to the local office of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

ANP’s candidate, Akmal Khan PMLN’s candidate Rab Nawaz, QWP’s candidate, Imtiaz Zaib and JUIF’s candidate Noorul Islam along with their supports reached the local office of the ECP.

They unanimously demanded that Asad Qaiser, speaker of the National Assembly, should be disqualified from his seat, as he had allegedly violated the ECP election rules. The opposition leaders demanded cancellation of the results and re-election for the slot of Swabi Tehsil chairman. In the two-page application, they said Asad Qaiser openly ran the election campaign, announced development schemes for which they had evidence.

They alleged that their workers were harassed and threatened through WhatsApp messages. The applicants said Form-17 and Form 18 were refused to them, the ballot papers provided were not appropriate, the ECP staff arrived late and the polling was deliberately slowed down when the PTI candidate was far behind in the contest. In addition, various other allegations were also made in the application.