The data has been changed again on the constituency PP 159, PP 164 (Lahore) of Chief Minister Punjab Maryam Nawaz, the seat vacated by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and PP 150 Aleem Khan’s seat
- The data of 41 national and provincial seats stored on Google Drive was ‘altered’ by the commission last week
- Form 45 remained missing till July 3 for 14 seats in Lahore
Dr. Akhtar Gulfam, Director News Dawn TV + Daily Dawn
ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has recently ‘changed’ the results of at least 41 National and Provincial Assembly constituencies in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by updating Form 45 stored on its official Google Drive. ‘
Although it is not clear what documents have been modified, the move has raised questions about the transparency of the election process, especially at a time when many disputes have been placed before election tribunals for adjudication.
Form 45 forms an important record of the electoral process, as it contains important information about the polling station and the number of ballots, and is signed by the presiding officer at each polling station. Form 47 is the provisional aggregate result prepared by the Returning Officer concerned.
The change in electoral data came on the back of a report by an NGO, Pattan-Coalition 38, which claimed that forms for more than a dozen constituencies were not available on the ECP website. This report, released on July 3, was rejected by the Election Commission as ‘baseless’.
However, an independent examination of the data uploaded by the government revealed that the ECP’s claim was false.
Data available on the ECP’s Google Drive – which it has used to upload information related to the 2024 general elections – shows on July 3 that 45 forms from 14 provincial assembly constituencies in Lahore were missing. Form 46 was uploaded in their place to fill the gap.
A check of ECP Google Drive on July 3 also revealed that around 50 Form 45s were missing for Circle NA 125 of Lahore.
But that started to change the very next day. On July 4 and 5 – as per the revision date seen on Google Drive – the ECP added the remaining forms for NA-125 as well as 14 other provincial assembly constituencies in Lahore. They include PP-146, PP-148, PP-150, PP-151, PP-154, PP-156, PP-159, PP-160, PP-162, PP-164, PP-166, PP-170, were included. PP-172, and PP-173.
Apart from PP 159 of Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, these seats also include PP 164 (Lahore), the seat vacated by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, and PP 150, which was won by Aleem Khan of Isthakim Pakistan Party.
Apart from these constituencies in Lahore, the ECP also changed the folders of 26 other national and provincial assembly constituencies in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), where Form 45 had already been uploaded.
From Punjab, 10 constituencies include NA 99, NA 101, NA 103, and NA 104 (Faisalabad). In these four, PML-N candidates lost to PTI-backed candidates. The most prominent among the winners was Sunni Ittehad Council chief Sahibzada Hamid Raza who won from NA-104.
Two seats in Lahore where data was allegedly tampered with were NA-118, where Hamza Shahbaz won against PTI’s Alia Hamza Malik, and NA-121, where Muslim League-N K Rohail Asghar lost to independent candidate Waseem Qadir.
Similarly, some updates were also seen in two constituencies NA-136 and NA-138 of Okara and one seat each of Leh and Taunsa.
In NA 181 (Leh), Sahibzada Faizul Hasan of Muslim League (N) faced defeat from Ambar Majeed of SIC. In NA-183 (Tunsa), the PML-N candidate was defeated by PTI-backed Khawaja Shiraz Mehmood.
Similarly, there were eight provincial assembly seats where the figures were also altered. These seats include PP 22 (Chakwal), PP 23 (Talagang), PP 108 (Faisalabad), PP 186 and 187 (Okara), PP 197 (Pakpatan), and PP 213 (Multan).
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the ECP reportedly updated the data for eight national and provincial constituencies, including former minister Shehryar Afridi’s election from Kohat for NA-35. These seats include NA-2, NA-3 and NA-35, PK-5, PK-7, PK-8, PK-9, and PK-10, all of which were won by PTI-backed candidates.
