Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has now been protesting for three consecutive days over the delayed issuance of Form 48 for the GBLA-16 Diamer-II constituency.
The protestors are currently blocking the Karakoram Highway (KKH). This has caused major disruptions to traffic and has stranded hundreds of travellers.
In Chilas the PPP workers gathered outside the District Returning Officer’s residence and maintained their protest on the KKH.
The protest has closed the highway to all types of traffic. On both sides of the highway long queues of vehicles have been formed.
The local administration so far has been unable to restore the flow of traffic.
According to PPP the unusual delay in the issuance of Form 48 has raised serious concerns about the electoral process whether it is transparent or not.
The protestors have clarified that the protest will keep on going until the form is issued and the election result is clarified.
The Form 47 has already been issued for this constituency. That form showed that independent candidate Syed Imam Malik won by 24 votes.
However, it is claimed by the leaders of PPP that the official records that are present in Form 48 indicate that their candidate, Attaullah, won by a margin of 269 votes.
The PPP candidate also rejected the decision by the Election Commission that ordered re-polling at four polling stations on June 15.
He argued that polling had been conducted transparently on June 7 and that Form 45 had already been issued.
According to the PPP candidate, Form 47 was compiled on the basis of Form 45, while only the counting of postal ballots remained pending.
He maintained that delaying the postal ballot count and subsequently ordering re-polling was unjustified.
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