KARACHI: Election tribunals across the province were allowed on Monday to proceed with election petitions challenging results of elections to different seats of the Sindh and National Assemblies won by leaders of the Pakistan Peoples Party, including Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, as the Sindh High Court vacated its stay orders against the tribunals’ proceedings.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice Munib Akhtar observed that the earlier decision of the full bench regarding the maintainability of the constitutional petitions against interlocutory orders of the elections tribunal still held the field adding “we are not inclined to extend the interim arrangement”.

The full bench had on May 26 ruled that the stay given on the proceedings of the election tribunal on election petitions would cease to have effect on June 23 and if any order is passed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in this regard in the meantime the matter shall be dealt with accordingly.

The order had come on as many as 11 election petitions against the victory of Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and Nawab Ali Wassan of the Pakistan Peoples Party and other winning candidates.

The larger bench observed that the SHC had earlier held that it had no jurisdiction to hear the constitutional petitions against interlocutory orders passed by the election tribunals and ruled “therefore, interim orders would have to be recalled and vacated immediately”.

It was ruled that the interim order staying the election tribunal proceedings would continue till June 20, and that if by then any orders or directions were made by the apex court, the matter would be dealt accordingly, otherwise, interim orders would cease to have effect on June 23.

CM Shah and MNA Wassan, represented by Advocate Farooq H. Naek, had filed petitions against the order of the election tribunal regarding maintainability of the election petitions against them.

The election tribunal had been restrained by a larger SHC bench to proceed with the election petitions against the chief minister and the PPP MNA on Dec 21, 2013.

The election petitions against them was filed by Syed Ghous Ali Shah, a defeated candidate belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), who sought the verification of thumbprints of voters on ballots in their respective constituencies.

Earlier on Dec 6, the tribunal had ordered the National Database and Registration Authority to carry out verification of thumb impressions of voters on entire ballots in PS-29 (Khairpur), the provincial assembly seat won by CM Shah, and in NA-215 (Khairpur), the NA seat won by Nawab Ali Wassan. The tribunal had also allowed another application of PML-N leader Shah for the verification of thumbprints of all voters on ballots in NA-215. The PML-N leader, who lost both the provincial and national assembly seats, had moved the tribunal through separate election petitions challenging the victory of the PPP candidates.

The PPP leaders through their applications before the tribunal had also challenged the maintainability of the election petitions against their victory, but their pleas were dismissed by the tribunal.

The PML-N leader had lost elections on both the seats in his hometown Khairpur to Mr Wassan and Mr Shah, respectively. Mr Shah of the PPP was declared returned candidate after he had secured 44,362 votes on PS-29 seat while Mr Wassan won by bagging 91,809 votes on NA-215.

The PML-N leader later challenged the elections results, alleging that his rival candidates had carried out massive rigging in the polls. He pleaded the tribunal to order the verification of thumb impressions on the ballots.

Advocate Naek on behalf of the petitioners submitted before the larger bench that the election tribunal had illegally allowed his rival’s plea for voters’ verification by ignoring the legal provisions. He said the tribunal had also dismissed his application against the maintainability of the election petition.

The counsel for the petitioners asked the bench to declare that the tribunal orders were without legal authority, thus the same be set aside.

On Monday, the counsel for the petitioners submitted that the appeals assailing the SHC’s May 26 order were still pending disposal in the Supreme Court and they were not yet fixed for hearing.

They requested the court to extend its stay order against tribunals’ proceedings. However, the Election Commission of Pakistan and other respondents strongly opposed the request for extension in the stay order.

The court observed that it had already held that constructional petitions against interlocutory orders of election tribunal were not maintainable in the high court and stay orders granted against tribunals proceedings still held field.

The order said: “All interim orders of whatever date against tribunals proceedings must be deemed recalled and vacated. Therefore, the election tribunals may proceed to deal with the matters before them in accordance with law”.

It further said: “It is clarified that as of today there are no longer any interim orders in the field in respect of any of the petitions that are listed today, i.e interim orders concerning interlocutory orders of various Election Tribunals as challenged in these petitions.”

The bench on a request of the petitioners’ counsel adjourned the hearing of the petitions to Aug 11. However, it ordered that the petitions be placed before Chief Justice Maqbool Baqar for his permission to proceed with them.

Published in Dawn, July 8th , 2014