LAHORE: Election tribunal member Kazim Ali Malik on Friday asked Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan whether he had confidence in him for hearing his petition alleging the National Assembly constituency, NA-122 Lahore, was rigged by Sardar Ayaz Sadiq of the PML-N.

The tribunal held first hearing of Khan’s petition on Friday after the Lahore High Court revoked on Thursday a stay order against the proceedings on the plea of the National Assembly speaker.

At the start of the hearing, speaker’s counsel Barrister Asjad Saeed argued that the tribunal had to first decide maintainability of Khan’s petition in the light of a judgement passed by the Supreme Court.

However, Malik observed that before resuming the hearing formally, he wanted to ask Khan whether he had any objections to him hearing the case.

“Any distrust, if showed at later stage, would not be accepted,” he said and added the petition would be decided expeditiously.

An associate of Khan’s lead counsel Anees Hashmi appeared before the court and sought time to come up with required instructions. The tribunal adjourned hearing till Monday.

Khan sought scrutiny of the votes cast in NA-122.

Published in Dawn, November 22th, 2014