SHC tells TLP candidate challenging Arshad Vohra’s victory to approach election tribunal

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday has directed the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) candidate for the National Assembly constituency NA-240 who had sought re-polling in the constituency on the basis of alleged rigging to approach the election tribunal for the redress of his grievance.

The petitioner, Syed Zaman Ali Jaffery, had filed a petition against the consolidated results complied by the returning officer (RO) of NA-240 District South. He submitted that the RO had declared the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) candidate Arshad Vohra as the winner despite the fact he had only secured 11,736 votes as per the Form 45 while he obtained 16,213 votes.

He submitted that as per the Form 45, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed Ramzan secured 42,347 votes, Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarian candidate Saleem Mandviwala polled 16,270 votes and Jamaat-e-Islami’s Syed Abdul Rasheed bagged 14,926 votes.

He submitted that Form 47 was based on miscalculation and requested the high court to restrain the Election Commission of Pakistan from notifying the returned candidate of the constituency and order re-polling.

A division bench of the high court headed by Chief Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi asked the petitioner’s counsel about the maintainability of the petition following the formation of election tribunals.

The petitioner’s counsel did not press the petition in view of the fact that the election tribunals had been constituted. The high court disposed of the petition directing the petitioner to approach the election tribunal for redress of his grievances.

In another petition filed by the MQM-P’s minority seat candidate, the high court directed the petitioner to approach the concerned returning officer to redress his grievance with regard to withdrawal of nomination by another candidate.

The petitioner, Sanjay Parwani, had submitted that another candidate Mohan Manjiani had withdrawn the nomination papers from the RO on January 22 and he may be placed first on the list of the reserved seats for minorities.

The respondent, however, disputed the assertion made by the petitioner. A counsel of the petitioner said that he would be satisfied if the RO may be directed to decide the fate of the application.

The Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) counsel submitted that the subject application was filed after the cut-off date of January 12. The high court disposed of the petition with a direction to the petitioner to approach the RO with a similar request who may decide the application after hearing all concerned in accordance with the law.