The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Sunday took notice of a viral video of an alleged vote-buying prior to the by-election in NA-133, Lahore and sought a detailed report from Deputy Commissioner Lahore and Inspector-General Police Punjab.

Through the notice, the Returning Officer has sought a detailed report by November 30 while a similar notice has also been sent to Chairman National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) and chairman Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA).

In the notice, a reference has been given to the video which went viral on Sunday on electronic media, as well as, social media with regard to alleged deal of vote buying on taking the oath. The DC Lahore and IG Police Punjab have been asked to undertake the forensic of the video and ascertain its veracity. The officials concerned have also been asked to identify the persons appeared in the video and the location of the alleged deal, besides taking action against the involved persons if any illegal action was proven against them.

Earlier, local leaders of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) hurled allegations against each other following the video went viral to show voters being bribed by party members ahead of the NA-133 bye-election scheduled for December 5.

PML-N’s Mohammad Arif registered a complaint with the ECP stating that the PPP is “buying off votes in the constituency”. He also alleged that PPP is taking oath from the voters allegedly for Rs2000 per voter.

PML-N’s Ali Pervaiz Malik also released a video message and condemned the move. He hoped that PPP would take notice of such malpractice and put a stop to it, immediately.

While responding to the allegations, PPP central Punjab’s general secretary Syed Hasan Murtaza accused the PML-N of “according respect to the note [currency] instead of the vote.” In a video message, the PPP leader recalled of the PML-N’s past “Changa Manga politics”. However, PPP Punjab’s secretary-information Shahzad Cheema stated that such videos are doing the rounds on social media, saying that “the clips are being made to go viral by both parties.” He said that the PPP has not issued directives to anyone for any such act, adding: “If this has occurred at any level, the PPP strongly condemns the act.”

This article was first published in Business Recorder on Nov 29, 2021.