LAHORE: An election tribunal dismissed on Wednesday a petition of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf candidate Hamid Zaman against victory of the PML-N’s Riaz Malik from NA-118 (Lahore) in the 2013 general elections.

However, the tribunal member Mohammad Rashid Qamar directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to hold an inquiry into the casting of double votes by 291 voters, as pointed out in a report of the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra). If a voter or member of polling staff was found guilty, action would be taken against him in accordance with law, the short order said.

In his petition, Hamid Zaman had alleged that the victory of Riaz Malik was a result of massive rigging. He had requested the tribunal to have the entire election record inspected through Nadra.

Nadra had conducted an inspection of the record and also verification of voters’ thumb impressions as per the tribunal’s order.

The authority had submitted two reports to the tribunal. In one of the reports, it had pointed out that the record of five polling stations was missing and unused counterfoils were missing from the record of one of the polling stations.

The authority had discovered that 291 voters had cast their votes twice. The other report said that National Identity Card numbers of over 12,000 voters could not be verified by Nadra. It said 65,793 used counterfoils were also not verified.

Malik Riaz had obtained 103,310 votes and Hamid Zaman 43,570.

Workers of the PTI and the PML-N gathered outside the ECP building before the announcement of the reserved verdict. They were raising slogans in favour of leaders of their parties. Minor altercations took place on the occasion.

NA-118 is one of the four constituencies of the National Assembly where massive rigging has been alleged by PTI Chairman Imran Khan since the announcement of the election results.

The other three constituencies are NA-122 and NA-125 of Lahore and NA-154 of Lodhran. PML-N had emerged victorious in the three constituencies also, but election tribunals had nullified the election results on petitions of the PTI candidates and ordered by-election.

Federal Railways Minister Khwaja Saad Rafiq has obtained a stay from the Supreme Court against the tribunal’s order regarding his constituency, NA-125. His election was challenged by Hamid Khan.

In the case of NA-154, de-seated Siddique Baloch also obtained a stay against his disqualification from the Multan election tribunal. But the apex court did not stop by-election in the constituency and allowed Mr Baloch to contest the by-election scheduled for Dec 23.

PTI leader Jahangir Tareen had accused Mr Baloch of rigging and also challenged his academic degrees.

The most important constituency among the four, NA-122, was regained by the PML-N when de-seated National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq defeated Aleem Khan of the PTI in a much-hyped by-poll on Oct 11.

Imran Khan was defeated by Mr Sadiq from NA-122 in the general elections, but he challenged the result in the election tribunal, alleging that the election had been rigged.

The PML-N had decided not to challenge the tribunals’ order and go for by-election in the constituency.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2015