Election tribunal dismisses PTI candidate’s petition on technical grounds

An election tribunal of the Sindh High Court dismissed the petition filed by a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate, who had challenged the election results of a National Assembly constituency, on technical grounds.

The PTI’s Adeel Ahmed had challenged the election results of NA-232 (Korangi), for which the election commission had declared the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s (MQM-P) Aasia Ishaque as returned candidate.

Ahmed claimed that he had secured the highest number of votes in the constituency but the election commission’s returning officer manipulated the results and declared the MQM-P candidate as returned candidate.

Aasia’s counsel sought the rejection of the plea over the petitioner’s non-compliance with Section 145 of the Elections Act, saying that if the provisions of sections 142, 143 and 144 have not been complied with, the tribunal must summarily reject the petition.

He said that in the instant case Section 144 has not been complied with. He argued that since the affidavit of service required by Section 144(2)(c) was not filed within the period of limitation, the petition is liable to be rejected under Section 145(1).

He also said that courier receipts on record demonstrate that copies of the petition were dispatched to the respondents on the day of presenting the petition, so the requirement of Section 143(3) was substantially fulfilled.

He submitted in the alternative that the tribunal can exercise powers under Section 148 CPC to enlarge the time for compliance and accept the affidavit of service filed on April 5, 2024. The tribunal headed by Justice Adnan Iqbal Chaudhry said that the tribunal was not convinced with the submission that the production of the courier receipts was sufficient compliance with Section 144(2)(c).

The tribunal said that under Section 142(1), an election petition can be presented to the election tribunal within 45 days of publication of the name of the returned candidate in the official gazette. The tribunal said that the notification declaring the respondent as returned candidate was published in the official gazette on February 15, 2024, so the period of 45 days for presenting the petition was until March 31, 2024.

The tribunal said that though the petition was presented within that time, on March 28, 2024, the first affidavit of service was sworn on April 5, 2024, thus filed beyond the period of 45 days.

The tribunal said that it has already held in other petitions that non-compliance with Section 144(4)(c) cannot be cured after the expiry of the period of 45 days prescribed for filing an election petition.

The tribunal said that the affidavit of service eventually filed by the petitioner on July 12, 2024, was much after the 45 days prescribed for filing the petition, so it cannot be accepted as compliance with Section 144(2)(c).

The tribunal said that the objection to the affidavit of service by the respondent succeeded, and so rejected the election petition under Section 145(1) over non-compliance with Section 144(2)(c).