The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) recently extended the duration of election tribunals functioning across the country from three to six months. These tribunals were constituted by the commission after the 2013 general elections for a period of one year which expired by end of June. The election tribunals have already been in the limelight because of the campaign launched by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf against alleged rigging in the general elections, and calling for electoral reforms in the functioning of ECP.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, three election tribunals have been functioning. The duration of these tribunals has been extended by three months. The performance of the tribunals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is comparatively better than other three provinces and it is expected that they would decide the outstanding election petitions within three months.

Presently, the three tribunals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have decided around 64 (88 per cent) of the total 73 election petitions referred to it by ECP.

The Constitution of Pakistan provides that an election dispute could only be challenged before an election tribunal by a candidate. Article 225 of the Constitution states: “No election to a House or a provincial assembly shall be called in question except by an election petition presented to such tribunal in such a manner as may be determined by Act of Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament).”

Election tribunals are constituted under Section 57 of the Representation of Peoples Act (RPA), 1976. Furthermore, under Section 67 (1A) of the said Act the election tribunal should proceed with the trial of the election petition on day-to-day basis and the decision thereof shall be taken within four months from its receipt. In Nov 2009, an amendment was made to the said sub-section and it was provided that no adjournment should be granted to any party for more than seven days and that too on payment of costs as the tribunal may determine.

This time, retired district and sessions judges have been appointed as presiding officers of election tribunals, which is a deviation from the past practice of notifying judges of the high courts in the tribunals. This deviation in a way has proved successful as in past most of the election petitions would remain pending till the time next general elections were announced and those petitions became infructuous.

Presently, only nine election petitions – seven related to National Assembly and two to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly- are pending before the tribunals and stated to be in the final stages. Of the total decided cases, the tribunals have dismissed 53 of the petitions whereas only 11 were accepted.

In June 2013, the ECP under Section 57 of the Representation of Peoples Act notified the three tribunals comprising former district and sessions judges named Mr Shahji Rehman Khan, Mr Ziauddin Khattak and Mr Syed Yahya Zahid Gilani for Peshawar, Abbottabad and Dera Ismail Khan regions.

Apart from election petitions related to the 35 National Assembly and 99 KP Assembly constituencies, the cases regarding 12 National Assembly constituencies of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas have also been assigned to them.

The tribunal comprising Mr Shahji Rehman was referred 31 cases of which he has disposed of 28 and three have still been pending. Fifteen of these cases were related to National Assembly of which 13 were decided, whereas of the 16 petitions related to the provincial assembly 15 were decided and only one is left for decision.

Similarly, Mr Ziauddin Khattak received 24 election petitions from the ECP and has so far decided 20 of the cases while four are pending. Of these cases nine relates to National Assembly of which four are pending whereas it has decided all the 15 provincial assembly petitions referred to it.

Mr Yahya Zahid Gilani had decided 16 of the 18 election petitions the tribunal received. He has decided four of the five National Assembly cases whereas 12 of the 13 election petitions related to the provincial assembly have also been disposed of by him.

One of the major reasons for the backlog of the election petitions is that several of the candidates have also moved the Peshawar High Court against certain orders of the election tribunal due to which proceedings before the tribunals remained suspended for the time being.

The pending election petitions related to the National Assembly are against former chief minister Ameer Haider Hoti of ANP, Sardar Mohammad Yousaf and Omer Ayub Khan of PML-N, Sahibzada Mohammad Yaqoob of Jamaat-i-Islami and tribal MNAs Ghazi Gulab Jamal and Mohammad Nazir, both independent.

A candidate of PTI, Nasir Khan, is locked in legal battle with Ameer Haider Hoti and has been seeking verification of thumb impressions of the voters. Similarly, the PTI provincial chief Azam Khan Swati has also been struggling to have verification of votes through an election petition against federal minister Sardar Yousaf.

The two pending election petitions involving MPAs are against Akber Hayat of PML-N and Ikramullah Gandapur of PTI.

“The law provides for hearing election petitions on day-to-day basis which is not possible as several petitions are assigned to a single tribunal. In several cases the contesting parties have also moved the superior courts against different interlocutory orders of the tribunals, which has been resulting in delay in disposal of such cases,” said Shahnawaz Khan, an advocate of the Supreme Court.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2014