Imran Khan files appeal to stop Pak by-elections for not removing fake votes from voter list

Islamabad, Feb 3 (ANI): Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan has filed a civil miscellaneous appeal to his previous petition, seeking removal of fake votes from the voter lists and asked that the by-elections scheduled for February 25 be stopped.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief submitted his appeal to the court through Advocate Hamid Khan and said that the Election Commission of Pakistan was holding the by-elections without correcting the current voter list, The Express Tribune reports.

Earlier, the ECP had categorically stated that the deadline given by the Supreme Court to purge the lists of fake votes by February 23, 2012 was "humanly impossible" and had sought assistance from political parties for extension of the deadline.

Hamid Khan said that a follow-up appeal was submitted because the ECP was conducting elections on the same date, despite court's orders to correct the voter list.

The Supreme Court, while hearing Khan's earlier petition, had observed that elections cannot be conducted based on the old electoral lists and that the ECP should recompile them. Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had insisted that the previous lists had over 30 million bogus votes, which could not be verified. (ANI)