NA-39 result uploaded on ECP website eight days after polls

PESHAWAR: The complete result of NA-39 Dera Ismail Khan where Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman was defeated by Mohammad Yaqub Sheikh of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was uploaded on the official website of the Election Commission eight days after the polling on Thursday.

Earlier, the results of only 23 polling stations of the total 312 had been compiled and uploaded on the website, declaring Maulana Fazlur Rahman as the losing candidate.

According to the spokesman for the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F (JUI-F) Abdul Jalil Jan, this was enough to show the desperation of certain quarters to keep Maulana Fazlur Rahman away from the Parliament.

According to the complete results, Sheikh Yaqub secured 79,332 ballots against 52,031 polled by Maulana Fazlur Rahman. The voter turnout was shown as 50.59 percent.

According to the results of 23 polling stations, which were projected earlier, the MMA leader had secured 4,076 ballots while the winning candidate Mohammad Yaqub Sheikh had received 5,516 votes.

It had been stated in the Form-47 earlier that 11,303 voters out of the total 328,428 had cast votes. The turnout projected earlier was 3.4 percent.

Abdul Jalil Jan told The News that the Election Commission had badly failed to ensure transparency in the election. He alleged that the results had been prepared even before the day of the polling, July 25, in some constituencies and uploaded on the Election Commission’s website.

The JUI-F spokesman said they had reported it to the Election Commission as well as the returning officers but no action was taken on their complaints.

He claimed that the election had been massively rigged and the results engineered.

Meanwhile, former chief minister and JUI-F leader Akram Khan Durrani requested the party chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman to contest by-election from NA-35 Bannu, which is expected to be vacated by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan.

According to the party spokesman, Akram Durrani and other leaders of the party wanted Maulana Fazlur Rahman to contest the by-election. However, they added that it is up to Maulana Fazlur Rahman to accept the request or reject it.

Maulana Fazlur Rahman had contested the general election on two National Assembly seats from Dera Ismail Khan – NA-38 and NA-39 – but was unsuccessful on both seats. In NA-38, he was defeated by PTI’s former provincial minister Ali Amin Gandapur.

Published in The News