HYDERABAD, Nov 15: A division bench of the Sindh High Court, Hyderabad circuit, on Friday reserved the order in a constitutional petition challenging the election of MNA-elect from NA-236 Mohammad Khan Junejo after hearing the counsels of the petitioners and the respondent.

The bench comprised Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Justice Mohammad Moosa K. Leghari.

Advocate Raja Qureshi, who represented MNA-elect Mohammad Khan Junejo, contended before the court that the petition was not maintainable because the right available to a voter to object to the candidature of his client could have been exercised under section 8E of the Conduct of Election Order 2002 which was not objected to by the petitioners.

He said that the petitioners had failed to raise objection and no representation was made to the Election Commission for securing justice under section 6 of the Election Commission order 2002, empowering the EC to pass any order.

He said that the petitioner should have filed an election petition before the election tribunal.

He contended that the petitioners were not the contesting candidates but were proposer and seconder of the defeated candidate.

He maintained that the defeated candidate could not be allowed to achieve something indirectly which he failed to obtain directly.

He said that the notification in respect of the qualification of the returned candidate, cancelling his degree was a process in which the returned candidate was condemned unheard as no show cause notice had been given nor the right of hearing had been afforded to his client.

Therefore, he said, the university notification does not automatically cancel the notification of the Election Commission, declaring his client successful.

So far as the writ of quo warranto is concerned, the counsel said, it could only be issued against a person holding public office which was not yet held by the respondent.

The petitioners’ counsel, Rasheed A. Razvi, stated that the petitioners had no remedy in law except to invoke jurisdiction of this court under Article 199 of the Constitution as Section 52 of the Representation of People Act 1976 provides that an election petition is to be filed by a candidate calling in question holding of that election.

He said that this petition should be treated as representative petition as fraud was played with the entire constituency of NA-236 Sanghar-III and thus declaration of results of the MNA-elect was void.

The additional AG, Sindh, Masood A. Noorani, said that the petition was premature; therefore, the remedy of writ of quo warranto did not lie in the matter.