‘ECP should ask IT Ministry, not PTA for phone data,’ says Fawad Chaudhry

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has approached the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to share the call record data of the 20 presiding officers who went ‘missing’ during the Daska by-polls in NA-75, The News has reported.

Last week, the ECP had announced that new elections in the entire constituency will be held in NA-75 (Daska) after its returning officer alleged irregularities during the by-polls in a report submitted to the commission. Government sources told The News that the PTA has asked the government whether to share the data with the ECP or not.

Speaking to The Current, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry said that the ECP has all the right to secure phone data though it “should ask the IT Ministry and not PTA under rules of business”.

According to the story published in The News, the government may be uneasy about the phone data as it could reveal who had planned and supervised the Daska by-poll rigging. The phone records “will not only establish the whereabouts of these 20 presiding officers during the time when they were missing but will also uncover those they were in contact with”.

On February 22, Prime Minister Imran Khan had tweeted that as he had always struggled for fair and free elections, he would ask the PTI candidate in NA-75 to ask for re-polling in the 20 polling stations that had become controversial. But the ECP later called for new elections in the entire constituency.

Have always struggled for fair & free elections. So even though there is no legal compulsion to do so before ECP announces results, I would request our PTI candidate to ask for re-polling in the 20 polling stations Opposition is crying hoarse over in the Daska NA 75 bye- election

— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) February 22, 2021

The PTI has now decided to challenge the ECP’s decision for re-polls.

پہلے دعویٰ کیا کہ الیکشن کمیشن کا فیصلہ قبول کریں گے کیونکہ ہم ان پارٹیوں کی طرح نہیں جو فیصلے نہ مانیں اور چیلنج کریں ۔ پھر کیوں چیلنج کرنے کا فیصلہ کیا؟ آج الیکشن کمیشن کو کوئی ثبوت اور پورے فارم 45کیوں نہیں دیے جیسا کہ آپ نے دعویٰ کیا تھا؟ سنیے

pic.twitter.com/62G1kgINvn

— Shahzeb Khanzada (@shazbkhanzdaGEO) February 25, 2021