Pakistan People's Party moves top poll body over non-registration of FIR against 'attack' on election office
Feb 04, 2024
Islamabad [Pakistan], February 5 : The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) approached the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) alleging that a First Information Report (FIR) was not filed regarding an alleged "attack" on the party's NA-127 Lahore election headquarters, ARY News reported on Sunday.
In charge of the PPP's election cell, Taj Haider claimed in a letter addressed to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) that although the party's NA-127 office had been attacked 20 hours prior, Punjab police had not yet opened a case.
"No case has been registered against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate and supporters who attacked the PPP's election office," Taj Haider wrote in the letter, according to ARY News.
Atta Tarar, the PML-N candidate from NA-127, and his staff, according to the PPP leader, attacked the office.
Three PPP employees were kidnapped by armed individuals who broke into the election office, according to Taj Haider. He insisted that the "PML-N" onslaught had an impact on the PPP polling agents' session.
According to the PPP leader, the police must file a report and look into any suspected illegal behaviour.
Atta Tarar of the PML-N and Mian Misbahur Rehman of the PPP were summoned by the ECP in the early hours of Sunday for allegedly breaking the Code of Conduct (CoC) in NA-127, according to ARY News.
According to sources, Punjab's Provincial Election Commissioner gave the order for the notices to be sent out. Candidates for the PML-N from NA-127 (Lahore) and the PPP from PP-160, Mian Misbahur Rehman, have been invited to make in-person appearances.
Each party had accused the other of "buying" votes. Additionally, the ECP had been made aware of a purported incident at the PPP's election headquarters.
Several incidents of violence marred the pre-election atmosphere in Balochistan and Karachi as multiple hand grenade attacks and explosions targeted political entities and election-related offices, ahead of February 8 polls which will be taking place across the country.
The ECP recently concluded the training of nearly 1.49 million election staff to guarantee the smooth conduct of the forthcoming general elections, which are slated to take place on February 8.
The training sessions began on November 19, 2023, and ended on the evening of February 3, 2024.
The participants in these courses were 144 District Returning Officers (DROs), 859 Returning Officers (ROs), and polling personnel.
