November 07, 2006	Tuesday	Shawwal 14, 1427

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LAHORE, Nov 6: Munir A Malik has moved the Pakistan Bar Council in an appeal with the request that the result declared by former Supreme Court Bar Association president Malik Mohammad Qayyum declaring Raja Haq Nawaz the SCBA new chief in his place after a vote recount, be declared unlawful.

The PBC is likely to consider on Tuesday the appeal a copy of which was made available to Dawn.

The appeal said Malik Qayyum and his team ceased to be SCBA office-bearers soon after the conclusion of the elections on Oct 31 as provided by rule 14(6) of the SCBA rules. Malik Qayyum also appointed himself as the returning officer, which was not provided in the same rules, it stated. Similarly, Malik Qayyum conducted a recount of the vote on Nov 4 which was against rules.

Quoting from the results declared on the night of Oct 31, Munir Malik stated that he got 310 votes against Raja Haq Nawaz’s tally of 280 as compiled at seven polling stations at Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Islamabad-Rawalpindi, Abbotabad, Multan and Bahawalpur.

He won from Karachi by a margin of 47 votes, Peshawar by 18 and Quetta by 13 and lost from Abbotabad by seven votes, Multan by 11, Bahawalpur by 19 and Islamabad-Rawalpindi by 11 votes. He was leading by an overall margin of 30 votes from the seven polling stations except Lahore.

As for Lahore, he stated, the counting of votes ended at 4am on Nov 1 and according to unofficial count, which was signed by polling agents of the two sides he had polled 285 votes against 311 bagged by Raja Haq Nawaz. Overall, the vote tally was 595 in his favour and 591 in favour of Raja Haq Nawaz thus he won the SCBA president’s slot by a margin of four votes. He stated that Rana Mohammad Zahid, the presiding officer at Lahore, also signed the unofficial result but did not seal the ballot box despite his polling agent’s plea.

Munir Malik stated that Malik Qayyum refused to announce the results and said he would hold an official count as returning officer and then announce official results. Such a declaration was beyond his competence, he stated.

He stated that on the day of official count, the Supreme Court building was cordoned off by police who were not allowing entry to even bonafide lawyers.

After the recount conducted under such a condition, Malik Qayyum announced that Raja Haq Nawaz was the new SCBA president. He said the Lahore presiding officer had sent the ballot box to Mr Qayyum who rendered a number of ballot papers invalid and counted many invalid votes as valid.