ISLAMABAD: Online posts are making allegations that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) violated regulations to favour a politician by assigning a retired official for election duty in Balochistan’s Pishin district.
Claim
“In Pishin, a retired deputy commissioner has been made the returning officer,” wrote an X user on December 21.
The post has been viewed more than 74,000 times, liked 4,800 times and reposted 1,800 times to date.
“A retired deputy commissioner has been appointed the returning officer in Pishin,” another user on the same day wrote, “A retired deputy commissioner has been appointed the returning officer in Pishin,” adding, “Remember that Nawaz Sharif is contesting the election from Mansehra and Fazlur Rahman is contesting from Pishin.” Similar claims circulated on Facebook.
Identical claims also took off on Facebook.
Fact
Contrary to these assertions, none of the returning officers (ROs) appointed in Balochistan’s Pishin district for the upcoming February 8 general polls are retired. An unnamed senior ECP official denounced the online claims as “fake news”.
According to the documents, available on the ECP’s website, Aqeel Ahmed serves as the district returning officer (DRO) in Pishin and is currently the additional deputy commissioner of revenue, still in active duty.
For the national assembly constituency in the district (NA-265), Behram Saleem, an assistant commissioner, has been appointed the returning officer. In the three provincial assembly constituencies of Pishin, the returning officers are Arslan Chaudhry, an assistant commissioner, Saleem Kakar, an additional deputy commissioner general, and Dheeraj Kalra, an assistant commissioner. All named officers are currently in service and have not retired.
The ECP official explained that online confusion may have arisen due to Aqeel Ahmed’s designation containing an “r,” with social media users mistaking it for “retired.” However, the official clarified that in this context, the “r” stands for the revenue department, not retirement. To verify the information, Fact Check of a private news channel also contacted Jumadad Khan Mandokhail, the deputy commissioner in Pishin, who dismissed the allegations as “fake.”
