LAHORE: PML-N lawmaker Hina Pervaiz Butt accused the PPP on Thursday of rigging in the by-election for the seat that was vacated following the disqualification of former Azad Jammu and Kashmir prime minister Tanveer Ilyas by a high court in April.
“People from the PPP have been caught red-handed while rigging in Kashmir,” she tweeted along with a video, shortly after the polling concluded.
In the video, a man is heard saying that he was at a polling station where another man, whom he did not identify, had stamped ballot papers in a bid to rig the elections.
“The entire polling station has been grabbed … Zia Qamar’s (PPP’s candidate) people first verbally abused the presiding officer and occupied the polling station … The Rangers here outside but not doing anything and Zia Qamar is sitting here,” he is heard saying.
Sharing another video on Twitter — in which a man is counting ballot papers that he said were “evidence” — Butt said, “The PPP has started stamping [ballot papers] in Kashmir as well. Rigging is not acceptable.”
Separately, another PML-N leader, Attaullah Tarar, claimed that his party’s candidate had a “clear lead” in the by-election.
“There are reports of rigging, [but] God willing, the PML-N will win. It is not possible that polling is completed 80-90 percent at some stations and 30-39pc at others,” he tweeted.
Meanwhile, PPP’s Faisal Karim Kundi congratulated his party on Twitter, saying, “Unofficially, Zia ul Qamar of the PPP is winning with a big margin in the by-election in Bagh, Kashmir.”
Official results of the by-election in AJK’s Bagh-II constituency are yet to be released.
The PPP and PML-N, which are allies in the Centre, are among several others vying for the seat that fell vacant after Ilyas was disqualified over contempt.
While Ziaul Qamar is contesting the election on the PPP’s ticket, the PML-N has fielded Mushtaq Minhas, a former journalist who joined the Nawaz Sharif-led party in 2016.
