Summary Imran Khan had alleged that Noor Printing Press in Urdu Bazar had printed the ballot papers
ISLAMABAD: (Dunya News) – Witnesses presented before the Judicial Commission (JC) have on Monday denied the charges by Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan that ballot papers for General Election 2013 had been printed by a private printing press named Noor Printing Press in Lahore’s Urdu Bazar, reported Dunya News.
Former Chief Secretary Javed Iqbal, Additional Chief Secretary Rao Iftikhar and provincial chief election commissioner Anwar Mehboob had been called as witnesses by the JC upon the request of PTI but all three witnesses denied the charges.
In a press conference on 11 August, 2013, Imran Khan had alleged that the ballot papers were printed at a private printing press in Lahore. Investigating Imran Khan’s allegations, Dunya News contacted the owner of Noor Printing Press Mr. Chaudhry Shaukat who had rejected Imran’s allegations on August 12. Getting their statement recorded before the JC on Monday denied the charges saying that all the ballot papers had been printed by government printing presses under army’s supervision.
Talking exclusively to Dunya News, Chaudhry Shaukat had said that his printing press hadn’t printed the ballot papers but the lists of polling stations and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had officially advertised that tender. “Imran Khan might have alleged us of printing the ballot papers seeing the bills that the ECP had paid us for printing the polling stations’ lists”, he had speculated.
Chaudhry Shaukat had said that printing of ballot papers at his printing press was out of question and that he would take legal action against Imran Khan.
On 16 August, 2014, Chaudhry Shaukat’s son Hafiz Saeed had served Imran Khan a legal notice in which Imran Khan had been asked to retract from his allegations within 15 days or explain his position. According to Hafiz Saeed, Imran Khan hasn’t responded to the legal notice as yet.
