SC rejects rigging allegations against Khawaja Asif

Dismisses PTI petition on NA-110 election; CJ says winning candidate can’t be held responsible for missing election record; Imran says inquiry commission had already pointed out irregularities in 2013 election

ISLAMABAD: Upholding the verdict of the election tribunal, the Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the petitions challenging the victory of incumbent Defence Minister Khawaja Asif from the National Assembly’s constituency NA-110, Sialkot, and allegations of rigging against him.

A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali heard the appeals filed by Usman Dar of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Arshad, an independent candidate, against the verdict of the election tribunal, Sialkot.

Usman Dar and Arshad had challenged before the election tribunal, Sialkot, the victory of Khawaja Asif who was declared winner by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) from NA-110 Sialkot in the 2013 general election. They had levelled allegations of rigging against Khawaja Asif. The Election Tribunal, however, dismissed both the petitions and upheld the victory of Khawaja Asif.Later, Usman Dar and Arshad challenged the verdict of election tribunal in the Supreme Court. 

On July 23, 2015, a three-member inquiry commission probing alleged rigging in 2013 elections rejected the allegations and said that the polls were conducted fairly and according to the law. NA-110 is one of the four constituencies which the PTI had demanded to be opened to investigate the election’s transparency. 

On Thursday, the court after hearing the arguments of counsels for both the parties dismissed the instant appeals upholding the decision of election tribunal. “We have heard the arguments of learned counsels for the appellants and respondent at length and for the reasons to be recorded separately, both these appeals are dismissed,” the court ruled in its short order.

Earlier Farooq H Naik, counsel for Khawaja Asif of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and the incumbent defence minister, submitted that the instant case was filled without solid evidence and the respective returning officer was not crossed examined as well.

He further contended that the petitioners have failed to provide documentary proof pertaining to pre-election rigging. He submitted as per four reports submitted by Nadra and two reports submitted by the ECP, the electoral process was not affected. The counsel contended that after elections were over, the election material was properly deposited in the treasury. 

Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali observed that he too remained acting chief election commissioner and he came to know that there was no space available in the treasury of federal election commission and provincial election commission’s offices for keeping the election material.

The CJ observed that the winning candidate cannot be held responsible for any missing election material. He said that it’s the duty of Election Commission to secure electoral record. Justice Amir Hani Muslim, another member of the bench, observed that in KP Election Commission Office, no space was available for keeping the election material.

Farooq H Naek contended that he was a member of the parliamentary committee and expressed hope that the said committee would soon be able to bring about election reforms  The CJ said the committee has not yet come up with resolution of some of the problems, except for holding regular meetings. He observed that people in power were taking benefits from the status quo. He said delaying census for the last 15 years was an apt example of that.

Farooq H Naek said they will collectively break this status quo as well. He claimed that his client would have won the election with a majority of 16,000 votes even if the votes termed controversial by the petitioners were excluded. He prayed to the apex court to dismiss the instant appeals as the petitioners had failed to provide the court solid documentary evidences of rigging. Babar Awan, counsel for Usman Dar, while in his rebuttal submitted that five bags of votes were found missing while many of the bags were found with broken seals.  Justice Amir Hani Muslim asked Babar Awan that he should have raised or crossed examined the witnesses before the election tribunal. 

Our correspondent adds: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Thursday accepted the Supreme Court decision with regards to NA-110 but said the apex court had accepted its stance regarding electoral irregularities in the constituency.

PTI chairman Imran Khan said the inquiry commission had already pointed out irregularities in the 2013 general election.  However, the party’s central information secretary Naeemul Haq took a hard line on the matter. He alleged that the PML-N MNA and Federal Minister Khawaja Asif managed to do away with the evidence with the connivance of the administration.

He went on to charge that the inordinate delay on the part of Khawaja Asif with regards to the case was in fact his strategy to put away evidence regarding electoral irregularities in the constituency.

Naeemul Haq noted that the PTI petition had unmasked many hidden aspects of rigging and said that his party would continue to expose the PML-N’s machinations and the rulers would be held accountable for playing havoc with Pakistan and its institutions.

Chairing a meeting of the party’s strategy committee here, Imran mandated the PTI vice-chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi to contact other opposition parties for bringing a consensus resolution in the Parliament against the probe committee formed the other day, headed by Justice (R) Amir Raza.

Imran asserted that all opposition parties had rejected the committee under Justice Amir Raza and that now this committee had no importance whatsoever. Meanwhile, the PTI chairman expressed hope of a good news from the Supreme Court during the next hearing of the PanamaLeaks case. He asked party leaders to vociferously project the party’s position on the matter during television talk shows.

The party’s strategy committee reviewed the replies submitted in the Supreme Court by the prime minister and his children, regarding their offshore assets, as reflected in the Panama Papers.  Those present in the meeting included Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Jehangir Tareen, Asad Umar, Naeemul Haq, Dr Shireen Mazari and others.