It was found that extra votes had been cast by people. PHOTO: AFP/FILE

KARACHI: A report regarding thumb print verification of votes cast at NA-258 released by the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) revealed that only 2, 400 of the total votes cast in the NA-258 constituency, Karachi, were genuine.



NADRA submitted the report to Justice Sherwani of the election tribunal, and confirmed that the thumb prints on thousands of votes could not be verified.



PML-N’s candidate Abdul Hakim Baloch had won in this area with a total of 51,148 votes cast for him.



His victory was challenged by the Pakistan Peoples Party candidate Abdur Razzaq Raja.



Following orders from the Election Tribunal, NADRA conducted thumb print verifications of 32, 695 votes cast in 33 polling stations, to find out that only 2, 475 of the votes were legitimate.



The report also said that t least 1, 400 of the voters had cast their votes twice.



Previously, during the May 11 elections police and rangers were called in to control voters who were trying to barge into a polling station of NA-258 constituency in Gulshan-e-Hadeed area of Karachi.



The turnout of voters in NA-258 during the last two elections has been over 40 per cent – 41.3% in 2002 and 41.04 in 2008. The constituency has 392,994 registered voters, out of which 232,247 are male and 160,747 are female.