NA-256 Karachi: NADRA's report to election tribunal goes against MQM

KARACHI: National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has submitted formal report in election tribunal on Monday which resulted against the winning political party, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), candidate.

Election tribunal has received detailed report from NADRA today which provided the evidences of large-scale vote rigging in Karachi’s constituency NA-256 during May 11 general election 2013, insider sources said.

Earlier, MQM’s candidate Iqbal Muhammad Ali declared winner on the constituency by scoring 151,788 votes while his opponent Zubair Khan from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) took 69,072 votes.

Subsequently, PTI’s Zubair Khan challenged the winning of Iqbal Muhammad Ali and demanded verification of casted votes via thumb expressions as well as submitted amount of Rs900,000 to NADRA.

However, the NADRA’s report revealed that 77,643 votes from 67 polling stations were not approved in accordance to the database while 11,043 votes casted through fake national identity cards.

Following the NADRA’s report, legal experts said that candidacy of MQM’s Iqbal Muhammad Ali could be annulled by the election tribunal and PTI’s Zubair Khan would be declared winner as he was runner up on NA-256 consituency.