Senate chairman polls: Gilani files intra-court appeal against IHC verdict

ISLAMABAD: Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Yusuf Raza Gilani on Thursday filed an intra-court appeal in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) against the Senate chairman election.

Earlier, IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah had declared Gilani's plea, challenging Sadiq Sanjrani’s victory as the Senate chairman, non-maintainable. The PPP leader sought annulment of the single bench judgment in the intra-court appeal, requesting that the decision of the presiding officer to reject seven votes should be quashed. The Senate opposition leader also demanded immediate suspension of the presiding officer's decision regarding the Senate election. An intra-court appeal has been filed by Gilani through his lawyer Farooq H Naek, Javed Iqbal Venus, and Barrister Umar Sheikh. Speaking about the Senate chairman polls results, PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had earlier said that his party believes in the supremacy of the Constitution and Parliament, but the polling process at a polling station cannot be described as parliamentary proceedings. “The PDM candidate Senator Yousaf Raza Gillani had challenged the decision of a presiding officer of the polling station in the Senate Hall. This presiding officer had rejected seven votes identifying them as the ones obtained by Gillani,” he had said in a statement.

Bilawal had said the PPP would exercise its legitimate right to go to an elevated forum to seek justice under the principle that a presiding officer of a polling station has no right to engineer the polling process and results.