February 28, 2008	Thursday	Safar 20 ,1429

KARACHI, Feb 27: A Sindh High Court division bench issued notices on Wednesday in another petition challenging the unofficial results in a provincial constituency (PS17, Kashmore).

Raja Ghous Bux Bijarani of the Pakistan People’s Party submitted through advocates Abrar Hasan and Masroor Alvi that his voters were not allowed access to about 20 polling stations in the ‘kacha’ area and not a single vote was cast there in his favour. He prayed that the Election Commission be restrained from officially notifying his rival, Ghulam Abid Khan Sundrani of the Pakistan Muslim League (Q), as a member of the Sindh Assembly.

Declining to stay the notification, the bench comprising Justices Azizullah M. Memon and Arshad Noor Khan observed that any notification issued after Feb 27 would be subject to the outcome of the petition. PPP’s Shabbir Qureshi was allowed to withdraw his petition for re-poll in PS-92 (Karachi), which has unofficially been bagged by Abdul Haseeb of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement. The bench noted that the Election Commission had already issued notice on an application moved by the PPP nominee for March 1. The petitioner submitted through Advocate Adnan Karim that the initial results that declared him the winner were subsequently changed.

The petitions moved by Mirza Ikhtiar Beg and Najmi Alam of the PPP and Salim Zia of the PML (N) were discharged when their counsel, Sheikh Javed Mir, failed to appear.

The bench was informed on Wednesday that the election tribunals were likely to be constituted and notified by the Election Commission shortly to proceed with the electoral disputes under the Representation of People Act read with Article 225 of the Constitution, which confers exclusive jurisdiction on the tribunals.