NA-39 Orakzai ECP fixes March 3 for re-polling

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan has fixed March 3, 2016 for re-polling in two polling stations of NA-39 Orakzai (Tribal Area-IV), giving a new turn to the situation. If MNA G G Jamal loses, he will be de-notified and his rival Jawad Hussain be declared the MNA-elect.

Before issuance of this directive, the Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Sardar Muhammad Raza presided over a meeting of the Election Commission here to review the security situation and as per the reports from the authorities concerned, found the security greatly improved.

The Election Commission said that pursuant to the judgement of the Peshawar High Court on June 25, 2015, in election appeal No. 01 of 2014 (Syed Ghazi Ghulab Jamal versus Jawad Hussain and others) and after normalisation of the law and order situation, as
assured by the local administration, re-poll may be held under direct supervision of the returning officer.  

It is a unique case in Pakistan’s electoral history that an MNA, who has been part of the National Assembly since 2013 general election, will lose his seat, if he lost from these two polling stations.His rival had approached the concerned election tribunal, which had ordered re-polling in two polling stations i.e.polling station No. 12 IDPs Camp Khawaja Muhammad 12 and Polling Station No. 13 IDPs Camp Khawaja Muhammad. The difference of votes between the two is that Jamal pocketed 196 more votes than Jawad.

Jawad alleged rigging and sought the election tribunal’s intervention. The Peshawar High Court also upheld the tribunal’s decision in June last year. However, citing law and order situation, the local administration took several months before giving a green signal for the electoral exercise.

Interestingly, Jamal recently visited the Election Commission of Pakistan to reportedly claim that his rival had changed his mind towards re-polling and that was why it was possible to close the chapter of this constituency.

However, the Election Commission, according to the ECP sources, told the visitor that the time for withdrawal was long over and now re-polling would be conducted in due course of time. Jawad could not be contacted for his viewpoint on the claim made by Jamal.     

Meanwhile, the Election Commission has asked the Provincial Election Commission of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to direct the political agent/district returning officer, Orakzai, to change the location of polling stations No. 12, and 13 of IDPS Camp Muhammad Khawaja to nearby situated Government High School Muhammad Khawaja and issue corrigendum accordingly.

It also directed that the political agent/district returning officer and  returning officer of Orakzai Agency be asked to retrieve these polling bags of  two polling stations of IDPs of the agency from the treasury concerned, where he had deposited after the general election and  de-seal the bags and retrieve from them the marked copies of the electoral rolls and after comparison of these the bags along with marked copies of the electoral rolls may be re-sealed and to ensure that these bags were deposited in the treasury, duly sealed.