This is the story of disappearance of ten presiding officers (POs) along with election results after the conclusion of voting in the by-poll for NA-110 Gujranwala on August 5 and their subsequent recovery.
Their retrieval by Gujranwala police on the orders of its superiors exasperated Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, who was in-charge of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) show to secure victory of its nominee.
An exchange of hot words also took place between Zulfiqar Cheema, the then Regional Police Officer (RPO), and the minister, which sealed the formers fate. PML-Ns Azhar Qayyum Nehra faced defeat while Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)s Rana Tassaduq won, which turned out to be a major setback for the PML-N because it was routed in an area where it was considered very popular. Cheema is brother of PML-N MNA Justice (retd) Iftikhar Cheema.
Despite repeated dropping of messages, Rana Sanaullah remained inaccessible. However, senior PML-N spokesman Pervez Rashid told The News that it was wrong that Cheema has been transferred from Gujranwala as punishment for not helping his party rig the by-poll.
He said that without Cheemas assistance the PML-N had won the most famous by-election in Gujrat which was the toughest contest. Similarly, it won different by-polls without any help from Cheema. Therefore, he said, it was baseless to assert that Cheema thwarted any rigging plan of which Rana Sanaullah was in-charge.
However, according to details got from different sources including police, till 10 pm of the polling day all the POs except ten reached the DROs office along with the ballots and the results prepared at their respective polling stations and handed over the entire record to him.
On noticing that the ten POs were missing, PPP leaders became alarmed and as their fears about rigging intensified, their angry workers besieged the DROs office. Police was called to ensure security. At the same time, a number of PPP workers besieged the Tehsil Municipal Office in Noshehra Virkan to protest the disappearance of certain POs.
Sources said that after some time one of the missing POs appeared before the DRO and delivered the result of his polling station, which was different from the one prepared at the time of the vote count in the presence of polling agents of all the contesting candidates. According to the original result, the PPP candidate had a 150 votes lead but in the result the PO presented to the DRO, the PPP nominee was defeated by 900 votes.
They said senior police officers of Gujranwala became very worried and their doubts that the PML-N has prepared a plan to rig the by-poll turned into belief. Police officials conveyed this to RPO Cheema, who, considering the gravity of the situation, reached the DRO office and ordered to search for and recover the missing POs.
Sources said due to police pressure the POs started appearing on the scene and on being questioned began telling the actual facts. They said they were taken to different houses in Satellite Town and Peoples Colony Gujranwala at the behest of the Nehra group where some people tried to change the results of their polling stations. However, these POs had hidden somewhere the real results so that these could be produced at the appropriate time.
The recovered POs recorded their statements before the DRO and presented actual facts. After that, the DRO conveyed the unofficial result to PPP leaders including Imtiaz Safdar Warraich, Tanvir Ashraf Kaira and some MPAs at 2 am on Aug 5. This helped get rid of high confrontation that had built up with the PPP workers ready to go to streets to protest the election rigging by the PML-N, these sources said.
Refusing to allow police to be used by the law minister, Cheema had told him that the force would remain neutral as per the orders of the Quaid-i-Azam Mohamad Ali Jinnah. He also said that if the PML-N wanted to use the police, it should transfer him immediately and then do what it liked.
Prior to the polling day, there was complete de-weaponisation in Noshera Virkan, which was being considered a no-go area for being a hub of arms and gangsters.
Before this drive, hundreds of armed men used to attend by-election rallies. The police had caught a PML-Q MPA, a PML-N MNA and the brother of a PPP minister for violation of the de-weaponisation.
http://thenews.com.pk/25-08-2010/ethenews/t-157.htm
Their retrieval by Gujranwala police on the orders of its superiors exasperated Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, who was in-charge of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) show to secure victory of its nominee.
An exchange of hot words also took place between Zulfiqar Cheema, the then Regional Police Officer (RPO), and the minister, which sealed the formers fate. PML-Ns Azhar Qayyum Nehra faced defeat while Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)s Rana Tassaduq won, which turned out to be a major setback for the PML-N because it was routed in an area where it was considered very popular. Cheema is brother of PML-N MNA Justice (retd) Iftikhar Cheema.
Despite repeated dropping of messages, Rana Sanaullah remained inaccessible. However, senior PML-N spokesman Pervez Rashid told The News that it was wrong that Cheema has been transferred from Gujranwala as punishment for not helping his party rig the by-poll.
He said that without Cheemas assistance the PML-N had won the most famous by-election in Gujrat which was the toughest contest. Similarly, it won different by-polls without any help from Cheema. Therefore, he said, it was baseless to assert that Cheema thwarted any rigging plan of which Rana Sanaullah was in-charge.
However, according to details got from different sources including police, till 10 pm of the polling day all the POs except ten reached the DROs office along with the ballots and the results prepared at their respective polling stations and handed over the entire record to him.
On noticing that the ten POs were missing, PPP leaders became alarmed and as their fears about rigging intensified, their angry workers besieged the DROs office. Police was called to ensure security. At the same time, a number of PPP workers besieged the Tehsil Municipal Office in Noshehra Virkan to protest the disappearance of certain POs.
Sources said that after some time one of the missing POs appeared before the DRO and delivered the result of his polling station, which was different from the one prepared at the time of the vote count in the presence of polling agents of all the contesting candidates. According to the original result, the PPP candidate had a 150 votes lead but in the result the PO presented to the DRO, the PPP nominee was defeated by 900 votes.
They said senior police officers of Gujranwala became very worried and their doubts that the PML-N has prepared a plan to rig the by-poll turned into belief. Police officials conveyed this to RPO Cheema, who, considering the gravity of the situation, reached the DRO office and ordered to search for and recover the missing POs.
Sources said due to police pressure the POs started appearing on the scene and on being questioned began telling the actual facts. They said they were taken to different houses in Satellite Town and Peoples Colony Gujranwala at the behest of the Nehra group where some people tried to change the results of their polling stations. However, these POs had hidden somewhere the real results so that these could be produced at the appropriate time.
The recovered POs recorded their statements before the DRO and presented actual facts. After that, the DRO conveyed the unofficial result to PPP leaders including Imtiaz Safdar Warraich, Tanvir Ashraf Kaira and some MPAs at 2 am on Aug 5. This helped get rid of high confrontation that had built up with the PPP workers ready to go to streets to protest the election rigging by the PML-N, these sources said.
Refusing to allow police to be used by the law minister, Cheema had told him that the force would remain neutral as per the orders of the Quaid-i-Azam Mohamad Ali Jinnah. He also said that if the PML-N wanted to use the police, it should transfer him immediately and then do what it liked.
Prior to the polling day, there was complete de-weaponisation in Noshera Virkan, which was being considered a no-go area for being a hub of arms and gangsters.
Before this drive, hundreds of armed men used to attend by-election rallies. The police had caught a PML-Q MPA, a PML-N MNA and the brother of a PPP minister for violation of the de-weaponisation.
http://thenews.com.pk/25-08-2010/ethenews/t-157.htm
