PPP moves IHC against Senate chairman poll result

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) challenged the recently held election for Senate chairman in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday.

The petition filed by Farooq H Naek on behalf of Yousaf Raza Gilani – the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) candidate for chairman of the Upper House—prayed the court to stop Sadiq Sanjrani from working as a new Senate chairman by declaring the election null and void since the PDM members had a majority in the House.

The petition further stated that the decision to reject the votes cast in favour of Gilani was unconstitutional. “We were deprived of our Senate chairman seat unfairly. And that the notification issued on March 12 declaring Sadiq Sanjrani as chairman was unconstitutional,” the petitioner said.

Speaking to the media outside the IHC, PPP leader Nayyar Bukhari said the rejection of seven votes cast in favour of PDM candidate Gilani proved to be a game changer. He was of the view that the presiding officer had wrongly rejected the votes, saying when PDM leaders asked for the ballot papers record the request was not accepted. Bukhari said the PPP had challenged the presiding officer’s decision under Article 199 of the Constitution.

He pointed out that there was the same column for stamping on the candidate’s name, saying: “It is voter’s intention that needs to be looked into”. It may be mentioned here that on March 12 a controversy erupted during the Senate chairman election when the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) backed candidate Sanjrani once again defied the odds to become Senate chairman after a knife-edge election.

Sanjrani received 48 votes, while his opponent Gilani got 42 votes. There was a controversy in the vote counting as seven of Gilani’s votes were rejected since the voters “did not correctly” stamp in the box.

Gilani’s representative Naek challenged the decision, however, the presiding officer rejected his objection and said the aggrieved party could move Election Tribunal against his decision. The presiding officer said the rules were clearly mentioned to stamp vote in front of the candidate’s box, adding the votes stamped on the name of the candidate had been rejected.