March 09, 2008	Sunday	Safar 30, 1429

LAHORE, March 8: The Lahore High Court has been moved for ordering re-polling in one national and two provincial constituencies of Gujrat because of “the massive rigging organised by Chaudhry Wajahat Husain and his armed gangs”.

Petitioner Barrister Ghazanfar Ali Gul said he contested the election from NA-104 of Gujrat from PPP platform. He said Nawabzada Muzzafar Ali and Maj Moeen Nawaz (retired) contested from PP-108 and 109, respectively, also on PPP tickets.

The petitioner said five armed gangs, operating under Wajahat Husain, Khalid Javed Asghar and Chaudhry Abdullah Yousaf, forcibly removed PPP polling agents and stuffed the ballot boxes with bogus votes after taking over the polling stations.

Identifying over two dozen polling stations, where the alleged rigging took place, the petitioners said the results from these points, in comparison with the others, varied from 94 per cent to 60 per cent.

The petitioner said the relevant record showed that grave illegalities and violations of the provisions of the Representation of People’s Act 1976 and rules had been committed. He said the presiding officers did not follow the procedure at the close of the poll under Section 38 of the Representation of People’s Act 1976, which was mandatory.

Under the section, after the close of the poll, the presiding officer was bound to count the votes in the presence of candidates or their polling agents and prepare a statement of the ballot count, which along with the certified copies of the result had to be supplied to the polling agents, he said. The presiding officer had to obtain on each statement and packet, prepared under Section 38 of the act, the signatures of the candidate or their polling agents, they added.

The petition said the returning officer and the election commission failed to ensure free and fair poll. It added the election commission denied the petitioner-lawyer, the inspection of the documents under section 45 of the act.

It said the armed gangs kept polling staff hostage and from certain polling stations polling staff, ballot boxes and election material was taken away. “Under the law no election could be deemed to have taken place in view of the massive rigging, prevention of the sizeable electorate from casting its votes, acts of violence and the manhandling of the petitioners and their supporters by the winning candidates and their armed gangs and the violation of the act,” the petition read.

If any action was patently illegal or without jurisdiction, the constitutional jurisdiction of the high court could be pressed into service, even after the announcement of the results, the petition said.

It cited Malik Anjum Farooq Paracha verses Chief Electon Commissioern (2002), Dr Amjad Mustafa verses Muahmmad Fiaz (2005) and Faquir Abdul Majeed Khan verses District Returning Officer (2006 SCMR 1,713) in support of invoking the constitutional jurisdiction of the court.

The petition prayed the court to restrain the Election Commission of Pakistan from notifying the results in constituencies NA-104, PP-108 and PP-109. Record be sought to ensure whether the polling procedure was done according to the guidelines laid down in the act, it further prayed.

It also asked the court to summon the presiding officers of the polling stations where the alleged rigging took place, to give their account of the polling day violence, violation of election law and rule and other `grave’ irregularities.