- With Saad Rafique eyeing ‘justice’, SC suspends election tribunal’s verdict on NA-125, PP-155, keeping railways minister in business for a month
- PTI chief terms suspension ‘just a month’s stay’, says govt pretending that NA-125 irregularities were ‘just for amusement’ and not to benefit Rafique
- Citing Rs 2.6m he paid for votes’ verification, Imran Khan demands possession of 93,000 ‘unverified’ votes from NA-122 to work on them
The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday suspended the decision of an election tribunal which ordered re-election in Lahore’s NA-125 and PP-155 constituencies on account of ‘irregularities’.
Last week, the tribunal found irregularities in NA-125 and PP-155, after which the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had de-notified Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique, who was declared victorious during General Elections 2013 from NA-125 constituency. The tribunal had annulled NA-125 election results, ordering a re-poll on the seat won by Rafique as well as PP-155.
However yesterday, a three-member SC bench headed by Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali suspended the tribunal’s order while hearing a response to Rafique’s petition.
In his plea, the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) leader contended that the election tribunal’s decision did not explicitly state that he was involved in rigging. In its short order, the tribunal had said grave irregularities were found in the record of seven polling stations of NA-125 inspected by the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA).
The application further said that the tribunal’s decision had said that there were only seven polling stations that showed discrepancies which were not linked to him.
The apex court subsequently suspended the tribunal’s decision for re-election in NA-125 and PP-155 constituencies and accepted Rafique’s petition for hearing. The bench adjourned further proceedings for an indefinite period, ordering the election tribunal to submit all records within four weeks. The bench also issued notices to Election Commission secretary, Hamid Khan and ROs.
“It was highly painful for me to be accused of dishonesty. We will fight the case on merit and we are certain we will get justice,” said Rafique, while speaking to reporters after the hearing.
“I am hopeful that if we have not done anything wrong, the truth will become evident,” the PML-N leader further said.
KHAN SAYS IT’S A MATTER OF TIME:
Meanwhile, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan told reporters outside the Supreme Court that the suspension of election tribunal’s decision is only a “stay for a month”.
Khan alleged that the PML-N government was pretending that the irregularities carried out in NA-125 and the laws broken by presiding officers and returning officers were “just for amusement” and not to benefit Saad Rafique.
The PTI chief also commented on PML-N’s denial of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) report revealing it had not been able to verify the thumb impressions of more than 93,000 votes polled in the constituency of National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq.
Khan said his party has submitted an application requesting that 93,000 votes be issued to them since his party has “paid Rs 2.6 million for the verification of the votes”. He said his party would scrutinise every vote and match with CNICs associated to them to ascertain if the CNICs were valid.
According to NADRA’s report, “There were 93,852 used counterfoils which NADRA could not process through its Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) because of poor quality of fingerprints of the voters affixed on them. However, CNIC numbers mentioned on such counterfoils having poor quality thumb impressions were valid CNICs.”
Khan said of the 73,478 votes authenticated by the AFIS, 15,000 were bogus.
BACK IN TIME:
Rafique and Mian Naseer Ahmad, both of whom belonged to PML-N, had won the 2013 general elections from Lahore’s NA-125 and PP-155 constituencies respectively. The one-page statement released by the tribunal last week had said that the ballot bags had been opened with a sharp object and the records had been tampered with.
Rafique had secured 123,416 votes whereas his PTI’s contender Hamid Khan had obtained 84,495 votes from NA-125 constituency.
Hamid Khan had challenged Rafique’s victory, alleging that the PML-N candidate had rigged the elections, and a large number of bogus votes were cast in his favour. He had requested the tribunal to declare the election null and void and announce re-election in the constituency.
