By-poll in Punjab constituency declared null and void, reelection on March 18

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan on Thursday declared a recent by-election in a National Assembly constituency of Punjab null and void while announcing reelection on March 18, local media reported.
Last week's electoral contest for NA-75 in Daska, a small town in Sialkot district, became controversial after two people were killed and three injured in clashes between the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party and its rival Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) opposition faction.
The constituency fell vacant after a PML-N lawmaker Syed Iftikharul Hassan Shah died last year.
Nine candidates were in the race for the National Assembly seat, though the real contest was thought to be between PML-N's Nousheen Iftikhar Shah and PTI's Ali Asjad Malhi.
The two parties accused each other of generating violence to manipulate the by-poll.
The PML-N accused its rival faction of intimidating voters and trying to manipulate the election results by influencing the election commission staff.
The ECP also issued a statement the following day, saying that results of 20 polling stations had seemingly been falsified in Daska.
The statement maintained it was not possible to release the initial outcome of the election without a complete inquiry.
The election commission also informed the results of NA-75 were received with "unnecessary delay," adding that it had tried to communicate with presiding officers several times with no success.
Other than that, the ECP suspected that the situation in Daska owed to the weakness of administrative and law enforcement agencies.
On Thursday, the PML-N candidate for the said National Assembly constituency, Nausheen Iftikhar, described the ECP verdict as a "historic decision."
Reacting to the development, information minister Shibli Faraz said that his party's legal team would review the short order and determine PTI's future course of action.
He added that the government had promised to give the country independent institutions "unlike previous administrations," implying that the ECP decision had signified that the PTI leadership had delivered on its commitment.