On November 10, a day after Sardar Ayaz Sadiq of PML-N was re-elected as Speaker of National Assembly, his political opponent Abdul Aleem Khan of PTI was standing outside the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) headquarters in Islamabad. Talking to newsmen, the runner-up Khan alleged of ‘fraud’ in voters’ list in the recently held by-polls in NA-122 from which Sadiq has won with a rather narrow margin.

The by-election was held on October 11 after the election tribunal’s judgment on the complaint of PTI chairman Imran Khan who had alleged rigging and manipulation in NA-122 in 2013 general elections. In 2013, PML-N’s Sardar Ayaz Sadiq secured 93,389 votes and Imran Khan was the runner-up with 84,517 votes. While, in October 11 by-polls, as per official results, Sadiq retained his constituency in a close contest bagging 74,525 votes while Aleem Khan got 72,082 votes.

NA-122, an important constituency comprising major parts of the heart of Lahore, was one of the four National Assembly constituencies where the PTI had been demanding recounting claiming that the elections were rigged there.

A couple of days after the by-polls, the PTI started raising voices alleging manipulation and fraud in voters list used for this particular election. A formal complaint has also been submitted before the ECP in this regard. The plea states that the ECP record shows that around 21,000 new voters were registered and 4,500 votes were transferred during the last two years. The PTI claims that only 812 voters have personally confirmed that they had requested for transfer of votes out of the constituency while the rest of the votes had been transferred against the voters’ will.

Shoaib Siddiqi, Member Provincial Assembly (MPA) of the PTI from PP-147, also in October 11 by-polls, says if the ECP does not have a record of all votes transferred to this constituency, it means that National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) itself had registered the votes. He says they have requested for Nadra verifications too. Currently, the ECP, he says, has a record of 812 voters who had asked for a transfer of votes. Nadra has a right of automatically adding to the voters list the persons who have attained the age of 18 and apply for Computerised National Identity card (CNIC) for the first time.

Section 18 of Electoral Rolls Act 1974 reads that no vote can be transferred from one constituency to another without the consent of a voter. As per rules, it is mandatory to appear before the Registration Officer of the ECP for such a thing. And only after the satisfaction of the concerned officer is the vote transferred to another constituency at the desired address and consequently deleted from the former constituency.

In its new complaint, the PTI has also demanded from ECP to provide details of valid record of transferred votes from NA-122 and asked the ECP to issue directives to Nadra to cooperate in this regard. The PTI claim that this addition and deletion has led to the very narrow defeat of its candidate.

Mudassar Rizvi of Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen) says that such issues about the changes in the voters list are beyond the purview of election monitoring/observation but these are pertinent complaints from a political party that needs serious response from the ECP. "Section 18 of 1974 law about electoral rolls clearly defines the procedure of registering votes. That means the ECP must have a record of the request of transfer of vote from one constituency to the other. The ECP should have a proper record of those transfer-of-votes requests and this is what the spirit of the law says," he says.

"Another issue with this Section 18 which has added some confusion is the automatic addition in a voter list when a person who enters 18 and gets his Computerized national Identity Card from National Database Registration Authority," he says.

Rizvi says it is the duty of the ECP to provide these lists to the complainant party and should have proof of these transfers in its record.

"And if the ECP does not have a record of these changes, it means that a proper procedure regarding additions in voters list was not followed. And if bodies like the ECP which are supposed to be neutral and fair are under some pressure, then the commission itself is mainly responsible for that. He says if these changes are made without a proper request and record, the neutrality, competence and fairness of the commission is under question.

The ECP, responding to the PTI allegations, has announced that no vote can be transferred from one constituency to another without the consent of the voter. "We have provided the voters lists to the PTI. During 2013, there were 326,028 registered voters in NA-122 whereas during by-election in 2015 total registered voters in the constituency were 347,762 -- showing an increase of 21,734 votes," says the spokesperson of the ECP who doesn’t want to be named as a matter of policy. He says record of the changes is available in the offices of concerned officials (Registration Officers).

Talking to media after filing the application before the ECP, Aleem Khan said he guarantees that Ayaz Sadiq will be de-seated again on the basis of this alleged fraud. Party chairman Imran Khan has expressed similar sentiments earlier. It took almost two-and-a-half year for the election tribunal to decide the earlier complaint of PTI. One wonders if the quest for justice in this case would be entertained before the scheduled 2018 general elections.