KARACHI: The Election Tribunal Karachi on Saturday put off the hearing of an election petition against Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah after it was told that the dismissal of the CM’s application for transfer of proceedings to the Hyderabad ET had been challenged in the Sindh High Court.

The tribunal headed by former Sindh High Court judge Dr Zafar Ahmed Khan Sherwani adjourned the hearing to Dec 27 after the submission of Mr Shah’s counsel, Advocate Farooq H. Naek.

Last week, the Election Commission of Pakistan restrained the Karachi election tribunal from passing a judgement in the election petition against the victory of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah on a provincial assembly seat on his application. However, later after hearing the counsel for both sides, the ECP threw out the CM’s transfer application.

The election petition against the CM was filed by Syed Ghous Ali Shah, an estranged leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, who was recently declared successful to a National Assembly seat by the election tribunal that declared the election of Pakistan Peoples Party MNA Nawab Ali Wassan void.

The PML-N leader had contested the election for the provincial assembly seat PS-29 and NA seat NA-215 in his hometown, Khairpur, but lost both seats to the PPP candidates. CM Shah was declared to have won the PA seat after securing 44,362 votes, while Manzoor Wassan won the NA seat after bagging 91,809 votes.

The judgement in the election appeal of the PML-N candidate against the CM was fixed for pronouncement on Dec 13 at the tribunal, but it was deferred by the tribunal as it issued a show-cause notice on Thursday to the parties for hearing on the question of politically motivated transfers and postings of the officers in the constituency.

Meanwhile, a two-judge bench comprising Justices Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi and Junaid Ghaffar issued notice to the ECP to submit its comments on the petition of the CM against the ECP’s rejection of his plea for transfer of the election petition against him to the Hyderabad ET. The bench would take up the matter on Dec 23.

Besides reserving its judgement on the election appeal against Qaim Ali Shah, the election tribunal also issued show-cause notices to the Sindh CM and PML-N Ghous Ali Shah to explain why material should not be summoned from the Election Commission of Pakistan regarding the government functionaries’ transfers and postings by the caretaker government on the chief minister’s choice in the Khairpur district before elections.

Advocate Naek said that Judge Sherwani had always had a bias agaisnt the PPP leadership.

He referred to certain judgements of the tribunal and said that it had declared the election of a PPP candidate, Perveen Aziz Junejo, void on the election petition of rival candidate Liaquat Ali Jatoi of the Pakistan Muslim League, who was declared winner despite a huge margin of votes.

The applicant CM said that one of the PPP candidates, Ghulam Qadir Chandio, was also de-seated by the tribunal that shifted the burden of proof on the winning candidate to establish that he was a graduate.

He said the tribunal also declared the election of PPP MPA Abdul Sattar Rajpar void on the election petition of rival candidate Arif Mustafa Jatoi.

Similarly, Syed Qaim Ali Shah said PPP candidate Sardar Muhammad Muqeem Khan Khoso’s election was declared void by Judge Sherwani on an election petition of rival candidate Muhammad Aslam Khan Abro.

The CM asked the SHC to set aside the decision of the ECP and transfer the election petition against him to another tribunal “so that the judgement may be written without any bias and in accordance with law and be announced accordingly”.

Published in Dawn December 21th , 2014