SHC suspends ECP’s decision to recount votes of 26 polling stations of PS-112 Keamari

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday suspended the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) order with regard to recounting of votes of 26 polling stations of provincial assembly constituency PS-112 Keamari Karachi.

The interim order came on a petition filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed MPA Sirbuland Khan against the ECP order of recounting of votes of 26 polling stations of the constituency and issuance of Form 49.

A counsel for the petitioner, Ali Tahir, submitted that Khan had already been declared the returned candidate from the constituency and he had also taken oath as a Sindh Assembly member.

He submitted that the ECP, despite issuance of the official notification, had directed the returning officer to recount the votes of 26 polling stations of PS-112, including rejected votes, in the presence of the petitioner and other contesting candidates in accordance with the law and prepare the Form 49 accordingly.

The counsel submitted that the petitioner had no efficacious remedy except to approach the court for reasons that against an order passed under the section 8 of the Election Act, no remedy power was provided to the election tribunal constituted for such purposes.

He submitted that the ECP had no jurisdiction to recount the votes after consolidation of results. The high court was requested to set aside the ECP order and restrain it from passing any new notification after recounting of votes.

A division bench of the high court headed by SHC Chief Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi after the preliminary hearing of the petition issued notices to the ECP, deputy attorney general and others and called their comments on April 18. In the meantime, the SHC suspended the operation of the impugned order of the ECP till the next hearing.

Notice to Ghani

An election tribunal issued notices to Pakistan People Party MPA Saeed Ghani and others on a petition filed by the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) candidate against the election result.

The GDA’s Irfanullah Marwat had submitted in the petition that the elections at four polling stations of PS-105 East were rigged by his rival PPP candidate Ghani as the results of those polling stations showed that 90 per cent of the total votes were cast there alone.

He submitted that the results of the polling stations of Chanesar Goth were rigged and bogus voting was carried out at the four polling stations.

The tribunal headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha after the preliminary hearing of the petition issued notices to the ECP, Ghani and others, and called their comments to assist the court on the maintainability of the petition.

The election tribunal also issued notices to PPP MNA Mirza Ikhtiar Baig and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan MPA Adil Askari on petitions challenging the election results of NA-241 South and PS-125 Central respectively.

PTI-backed candidates Khurrum Sher Zaman and Fouzia Siddiqui had submitted that they secured highest votes in NA-241 and PS-125 respectively but the returning officers manipulated the form 45 results in the consolidation form 47 without fulfilling the requirements under the election law. They requested the tribunal to set aside the ECP’s notification and declare them as the returned candidates.