LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) on Saturday challenged the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) decision on deploying local polling agents during polling for by-polls to 20 Punjab Assembly constituencies being held on Sunday (today).
The petition was the Lahore High Court (LHC) filed by PTI Central Punjab President Yasmin Rashid through her counsel Aamir Saeed. She, in the petition, contested that there is no such bar on deploying a polling agent who is a resident of the constituency.
“There is no such provision in the Elections Act,” she said and termed the decision made by the ECP to further expose biases against the PTI. She further alleged that such acts are part of pre-poll rigging attempts and asked the LHC to annul the election commission decision.
It is pertinent to mention here that PTI has deployed its MNAs from KP to oversee the by-polls in the 20 Punjab constituencies that would decide the fate of the incumbent Chief Minister Hamza Shahbaz. According to sources privy to the PTI strategy to foil rigging attempts, as many as 5,000 young PTI activists will be deployed at the constituencies along with lawyers being posted as polling agents of the party.
“The lawyers will be made polling agents and will perform their duties in uniforms to foil any rigging attempts immediately,” they said.
They said that PTI women activists will be deployed at the female polling stations and measures will be taken for their transportation to the polling station.
“The PTI leadership will also remain in touch with the party candidates on the polling day while candidates will also be asked to secure pre-arrest bails to avoid any bid to arrest them,” they said.
