First win for PTI in pleas against ‘rigging’

ISLAMABAD: The Election Tribunal’s decision on NA-125 has become a great victory for the PTI for the reason that out of a total of 69 election petitionsfiled before the Tribunals by PTI contestants after the 2013 polls, this is the first success for any of the candidates belonging to Imran Khan-led Tehreek-e-Insaf.
Otherwise, in the vast majority of cases, more than 40 in number, the PTI election petitions have already been rejected by the election tribunals.Though the Tribunal’s NA-125 decision, which is highly embarrassing for the ruling PML-N, has made headlines, in actual, this is the result of just one of the 387 election petitions which were filed before the election tribunals after the 2013 elections.
For the PTI, the NA-125 has always been important for being one of the “four constituencies” where the party has been demanding verification of votes since the 2013 elections to ascertain if the polls in these constituencies were rigged or not.
However, it is interesting to note that the NA-125 is not the first out of these four constituencies where election dispute has been settled by the Election Tribunal. Earlier, the Election Tribunal in the case of NA-110, where Khawaja Asif’s victory was challenged by PTI’s Usman Dar, decided in favour of the PML-N candidate. Against this decision, the PTI candidate had approached the apex court.
The PTI chairman has been seeking ‘verification of thumb impressions’ in NA-110, NA-122, NA-125 and NA 154. Now after the NA-125 decision, all eyes are set on tribunals which are currently ceased with the election petition of NA-122 and NA-154. In NA-122, Imran Khan has challenged the victory of National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq. In NA-154, PTI’s Secretary General Jehangir Tareen is contesting before the Tribunal against the victory of an independent candidate. The PML-N candidate had got the third position in the said constituency.
The election tribunals set up after the May 2013 general elections have so far disposed of 356 of the total 387 election petitions filed by losing candidates of the national and provincial assemblies all over Pakistan.
In the case of NA-125, media reports suggest the involvement of returning officer and other election staff in what could be termed as pre-planned rigging, in none of the previous 355 decisions there has been any case of “systematic rigging”.
As a consequence of election petitions, a small number of candidates has been disqualified mainly because of concealment of assets, wrong declarations or fake degrees. There are perhaps only a few cases where the elections have been nullified because of rigging. Such decisions have affected the returned candidates of different political parties, including the PTI.
Following the May 2013 general elections, a total of 387 election petitions were filed before the election tribunals by the losing candidates belonging to different political parties. These petitions include the election disputes of all national and provincial assemblies. A total of 59 PTI candidates all over Pakistan had approached the election tribunals and, by now, more than 40 of PTI petitions have been disposed of by the tribunals with NA-125 the only success so far.
It is relevant to mention here that out of the 387 election petitions, 166 petitions were filed in Punjab, out of which 141 have already been decided by the tribunals. In Sindh, a total of 91 petitions were filed, out of which 87 have been settled.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the number of election petitions filed was 70. Out of these petitions, 67 cases have already been disposed of by the tribunals. In Balochistan, all the petitions filed have been disposed of. Sixty election petitions were filed in election tribunals in Balochistan.Out of the 31 petitions still pending before the election tribunals, most are being delayed owing to the stay orders obtained from high courts.