NA-122 verdict

The election tribunal judge has apparently declared the NA-122 result ‘null and void’, mainly basing his decision on the non-verification of bulk of votes through thumb impressions. First, according to some legal experts, the thumb impression verification is not a legal requirement. Then, it has been proven time and again that the thumb impression exercise is not reliable at all. It was also discovered that the so-called magnetic ink was either faulty or not used at all on many polling stations in the 2013 general elections.
During the recent NA-19 by-election, the ECP disclosed that in the 30 percent polling stations where biometric machines were used, less than 50 percent voters could be verified. Different reasons – including poor quality thumb impressions – have been highlighted. How can we depend on verification of impressions taken on rough quality papers in the 2013 general elections? Declaring an election void does not appear to be a valid reason to deprive a winning candidate from a hard-won seat.
Air-Cdre (r) Mohammad Yaqoob Khan
Rawalpindi