Nawaz Sharif won NA-130 by 74,000 bogus votes: Yasmin Rashid's counsel

LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Yasmin Rashid’s counsel alleged that 74,000 bogus votes were cast in NA-130 to ensure the victory of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Nawaz Sharif, ARY News reported.

Addressing a presser, former Attorney General Punjab and Yasmin Rashid’s counsel, Ahmed Owais said that the ‘electoral fraud’ was committed on February 8 in NA-130 (Lahore).

“Around 74,000 more votes were cast than the total number of votes to ensure the victory of Nawaz Sharif,” he added. Ahmed Owais said that the final result revealed a significant increase in Nawaz Sharif’s vote count from the majority of polling stations.

He said that after the May 9 riots, Yasmeen Rashid was arrested in ‘fabricated’ case. “If she (Yasmin Rashid) was involved, she would have been punished by now, but the government does not have any evidence against her,” Ahmed Owais.

It is pertinent to mention here that Nawaz Sharif had clinched the seat by grabbing 179,310 votes against PTI-backed Dr Yasmin Rashid who could get 104,485 votes in the general elections held on February 8.

Yasmin Rashid challenged Nawaz’s victory in the Election Commission of Pakistan as well as the Lahore High Court.

Earlier, a civil society organisation PATTAN said that Lahore’s NA-130 constituency, where PML-N president Nawaz Sharif defeated PTI’s Yasmin Rashid in general elections 2024, is likely to have experienced the ‘worst form of rigging’ in the electoral history of Punjab.

“The National Assembly constituency NA-130 of Lahore is likely to have experienced the worst form of rigging ever happened in the electoral history of Punjab since 2002 general elections as on many Form-45s the turnout for NA130 was between 90 per cent and 102pc, while for provincial assembly seats about 40pc,” the PATTAN said in a report.

The organisation claimed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) seemingly increased Nawaz Sharif’s share in polled votes on Forms-45s which compelled the election officials to increase the overall turnout too for the same polling stations, and eventually that forced them to prepare the fake Form-47.