July 17, 2008	Thursday	Rajab 13, 1429

LAHORE, July 16: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition challenging the election of a PPP MPA, Maj Zulifqar Ali Gondal (retired), from PP-118, Mandi Bahauddin.

On the last date of hearing, judge had restrained Election Commission of Pakistan from notifying in the official gazette the name of Mr Gondal. His rival Ahmed Khan Bhatti had prayed the court to stop the commission from notifying his success and restrain him from taking oath as member of the Punjab Assembly.

However, on Wednesday, the court was informed that the election commission had already published its official gazette and name of Mr Gondal had been published in it before the court issued the stay order against it.

The court observed that directions issued to the election commission about not publishing the name of the respondent were meaningless, as the gazette had already got published.

The petitioner said the ruling Pakistan People’s Party helped Gondal rig the election by using state machinery and harassing the polling staff.

He said he approached the ECP and returning officer concerned seeking deployment of Rangers in the area but they paid no heed to his request.

He said after failing to achieve their target during the polling, the respondent candidate with the help of his brother pressurised the polling staff and snatched ballot bags from presiding officers and assistant presiding officers. The officers reported the matter to RO in writing who forwarded the same to district RO. Ultimately DPO registered three different FIRs.

The RO wrote to ECP that due to snatching of ballot bags consolidation of result was not possible. “But despite that fact RO consolidated result on July 3 according to which petitioner secured 19,081 valid votes while Gondal obtained 20,859 votes,” he said.The petitioner said it was mandatory for the RO to examine rejected votes but he instead acted mechanically.