It used to be that if you went to Baldia, you were on Farooq Dada’s turf. The MQM muscleman may have been summarily dispatched to a higher plane in 1995 in a police encounter but his spirit lingered on in name. For years no other party’s candidate stood a chance in this part of Karachi. All that changed this April. Farooq Dada’s legacy finally ran out in the by-election held in Baldia Town for its NA-249 seat. The MQM came in sixth with 7,511 votes. With this, the MQM solidified a spectacular losing streak: it has lost the last four out of five by-elections in Karachi. LOST PS-114 (Mehmoodabad)WON PS-94 (Landhi)LOST PS-88 (Malir)LOST NA-243 (Gulshan-e-Iqbal) LOST NA-249 (Baldia) .
Recount of votes of all 276 polling stations in NA-249 may take two more days
Four key parties accuse RO of failing to provide them with Forms 45 and 46, breaking the seal of ballot bag
KARACHI:
Four parties, the PML-N, the PTI, the MQM and the PSP, boycotted the recounting to votes in NA-240, Karachi, accusing the returning officer (RO) of failing to provide them with Forms 45 and 46 and breaking the seal of the ballot bags.
However, the PPP – which had won the by-election on April 29 the banned Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) and a few independent candidates, remained present at the recounting, which was ordered by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on the PML-N’s request.
KARACHI: The recount of votes in the recently held by-election in the NA-249 constituency hit a snag on Thursday when the four key contesting parties – the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan and Pak Sarzameen Party – boycotted the exercise alleging unfairness in the process and a partial role of the returning officer (RO).
Within minutes after the recount began at the RO office, the leaders of the contesting parties that boycotted started turning away from the process claiming that the officials concerned failed to answer the justified questions and provide the necessary documents to them.
“This recount was ordered to bring more transparency after there were some reservations of the contesting parties,” said the PML-N candidate and former finance minister Miftah Ismail while talking to reporters after boycotting the recount.
Four major parties boycott NA-249 by-election recount PTI, PML-N, MQM and PSP accuse RO of failing to provide Form 45 and Form 46 and breaking seal of ballot bags PTI seeks annulment of by-poll over pre-poll rigging, election day rigging and post-poll rigging
May 7, 2021
All political parties except for Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the independent candidates on Thursday boycotted the process of recounting of votes in the NA-249 constituency.
The PTI, PML-N, MQM and PSP accused the returning officer (RO) of failing to provide the Form 45 and Form 46 and breaking the seal of the ballot bags.
Speaking to media in Karachi, PML-N candidate Miftah Ismail claimed the RO had refused to give the Form 45 and Form 46, adding that a full audit was also refused. “Unused ballots were not counted and signatures weren’t shown either,” he claimed. “When we asked why there was no seal on the first ballot bag brought in, we were told that it might have fallen down,” he said