A petition has been filed in the Sindh High Court (SHC) seeking the disqualification of Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani under Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution.
The petition comes after a video went viral on social media in which Durrani was heard saying that he relates with people and does not care for votes. The petitioners claim that Durrani’s comments violated the sanctity of vote.
On Tuesday, notices had been issued the defendants including Sindh governor and chief minister.
The petitioners further argued that the comments from Durrani discourage the public from partaking in the electoral process, adding that Pakistan has a poor voter turnout because of the negative attitudes of people in public office.
“Pakistan ranks among the bottom four countries in terms of the voter turnout [at 164th place among 169 countries],” they stated, citing the statistics of the Election Commission of Pakistan and NADRA.
It is worth mentioning here that the voter turnout in Pakistan is 45.3%.
The petition also mentions an alleged telephone conversation between Durrani and a journalist where the former is heard threatening the latter with consequences since he published news of the video.
The petitioners also requested the SHC to disqualify Durrani from the Sindh Assembly, adding that he has also violated Articles 25 and 113.
The petitioners include a former union council chairperson, Ali Nawaz, rights activist and writer Zulfiqar Halepoto and two women rights activists, Seema Naz and Ruksana Kausar. The court has fixed the hearing for October 20.