ECP recommends action against 60 officials in Daska by-poll case

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has recommended disciplinary action against 60 officials for ‘corrupt’ practices in connection with rigging in NA-75, Daska by-election, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.    

Those against whom the ECP has recommended action include 27 presiding officers (POs), a DRO, returning officers, district returning officers, seven SHOs, former DC Sialkot Zeeshan Ahmad Lashari, DPO Sialkot, former AC Daska, former DSP Sambrial, eight assistant education officers and police personnel.

In November last year, ECP formally released two inquiry reports about the disappearance of 20 presiding officers during the February by-election in Daska.

The ECP report revealed that the senior officials of the police and the district administration were “already in knowledge of what was going on and they allowed the things to happen as per planning.”

“The district administration was in loop regarding the happenings of all undesired and illegal incidents with reference to said by-election at some level,” says the 34-page damning fact-finding inquiry report against the officers, most of them already placed under suspension.

The other inquiry report has found that election officials and government functionaries acted as “puppets in the hands of their unlawful masters”.

Reporters: Chand Malik, Mian Ishfaq