HYDERABAD, Oct 29: A division bench of the Sindh High Court, Hyderabad circuit, comprising Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Gulzar Ahmed, on Tuesday issued notices to the Attorney General, Advocate General of Sindh, the Chief Election Commissioner, the Provincial Election Commissioner, the District Returning Officer, the Returning Officer and nine candidates who had contested the election on PS-62 (Tharparkar-III) on Oct 10.

The bench has fixed the matter for hearing on Oct 31.

Advocate Jhamatmal Jeth Anand filed the petition on behalf of MPA-elect of the Sindh Democratic Alliance (SDA) from PS-62, Arbab Haji Abdullah, a resident of the Khetlari village, Diplo Taluka, Tharparkar.

The petitioner claimed that there were a total of 78 polling stations and the elections were held peacefully without any interruption on all these polling stations except polling station No50 of the Government Primary School Adam Rind and polling station No26 at Orhamar. On these polling stations, Ghulam Mohammad Laat and his son, Gul Mohammad Laat, and their supporters created disturbances. An FIR was lodged by the presiding officer of polling station No50.

The presiding officer of polling station No26 at Orhamar also sent reports to the police and an FIR was lodged by one Khair Mohammad Dal.

The petitioner said that the RO of PS-62 also sent reports of such incidents as well as the late production of results to the Chief Election Commissioner on Oct 11 and 12. He added that the RO consolidated the results of all polling stations except the results of PS-26.

The RO, he stated, also prepared statement of count on Form XVII and furnished it to the chief and provincial election commissioners.

According to the statement of the count, the petitioner was declared successful with a margin of 8,482 votes against Gul Mohammad Laat.

He said that in order to frustrate the results of the elections, Laat filed false and frivolous applications before the CEC, who subsequently called a report from the RO.

However, the petitioner said, the CEC has meanwhile ordered that the notification not be issued. He has appointed Javed Khursheed, the deputy chief election commissioner, Bahawalpur, at Multan as inquiry officer in place of Chaudhry Qamar-uz-Zaman. He further said that the order of the CEC dated Oct 19 was illegal and without any lawful authority.

The petitioner’s counsel contended in the petition that the order of the CEC was passed without affording any opportunity of hearing to the petitioner, and added that after his client complied with all the rules and regulations the CEC had no jurisdiction to withhold the issuance of the notification.

He argued that withholding of notification of the petitioner was based on false application.

He said that the order of the CEC had deprived the petitioner of his right of vote for minority and women candidates, leader of the house, speaker, deputy speaker, and members of the Senate.

Mr Jeth Anand asserted that impugned order was against the provisions of the Constitution and Representation of the People’s Act 1976.