NA-125 repolling ordered for irregularities not rigging

ISLAMABAD: A leading question that unseated Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique will come up before the Supreme Court for an authoritative ruling will be: whether or not an elected representative can be ousted on the basis of poll irregularities and due to negligence of the election staff.
Although the detailed grounds and reasons of the ouster of Saad Rafique as a member of the National Assembly will be known only after the judgment of the election tribunal is available, what has immediately come out so far shows that irregularities became the basis of his exit and the poll rigging or deliberate systematic manipulation was not proved.
The tribunal judge told reporters that the allegations of rigging leveled by the challenger, Hamid Khan of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), have not been established. Of the analysis of 15 polling stations ordered by the tribunal judge, irregularities were found in the record of only seven stations.
However, PTI leader Hamid Khan, talking to Geo dispelled this impression and said that irregularities were found in majority of the polling stations in this constituency.The NA-125 Lahore had a total of 265 polling stations. The findings relating to these points became the basis of Saad Rafique’s ouster.
It is said that had rigging been proved, Saad Rafique would have been disqualified and not only unseated. But Hamid Khan said disqualification issue did not fall under tribunal’s jurisdiction.
Recently, a Karachi election tribunal had not only unseated but also disqualified a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) member of the Sindh Assembly and declared the runner-up, belonging to the Jamaat-e-Islami as winner, who had filed the petition. The PTI candidate has got a stay order from the Supreme Court.
Some time back, a Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) election tribunal had found in certain polling stations of a Haripur constituency rigging by the PTI winner. The forum had ordered re-polling in these particular stations, and as a result the PML-N nominee had won.
In view of the KP tribunal’s decision and in the opinion of legal experts, re-polling was required to be ordered in the polling stations where irregularities were detected. As the Lahore tribunal judge declared the NA-246 election null and void, he was satisfied that irregularities were on a large scale needing fresh election.It is also an open question as to which candidate, Saad Rafiq or Hamid Khan, got the extra votes polled by certain electorate.
Regardless of what dejected and angry Saad Rafique and his PML-N say and irrespective of the grounds of the minister’s unseating, it was a great day for the PTI, which was rightly thrilled and went overboard as per its temperament and disposition. It is a morale booster for the PTI, but deliberate systematic manipulation is yet to be proved before the three-member judicial commission, which is holding inquiry in such kind of fraud.
PTI Chairman Imran Khan felt vindicated. The NA-125 seat was among the four National Assembly constituencies he had been disputing for two years, and demanding their ‘opening’ for scrutiny.