PTI petition to reopen constituencies out of SC jurisdiction: govt
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ISLAMABAD: The government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday submitted a written reply in the Supreme Court in a case pertaining to reopening of four Punjab constituencies requested by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).
The government demanded the apex court to snub the petition as it was non-maintainable due to being sub judice in election tribunals, DawnNews reported.
The rejoinder, submitted by the office of Attorney General on behalf of the Law Ministry, said that the case regarding recounting of ballots and verification of thumb impressions of the constituencies was pending before election tribunals and therefore was out of the apex court’s jurisdiction.
Also read: PTI's ‘Plan C’ set to paralyse Karachi
All the four constituencies under question were bagged by the ruling PML-N stalwarts — Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafiq (NA-125, Lahore) Siddiq Khan Baloch (NA-154, Lodhran), Defence and Water and Power Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif (NA-110, Sialkot) and Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq (NA-122, Lahore).
According to Article 225 of the Constitution, petitions pertaining to elections fall under the jurisdiction of election tribunals, said the rejoinder. Therefore, the Supreme Court cannot be asked to hear such petitions, it added.
The government also pleaded before the court to rebuff the PTI’s petition for what it termed vague and generic allegations hurled in it. The PTI’s petition was also not attached with any evidence, added the PML-N response.
After staging anti-government protest rallies across the country and a sit-in in the federal capital for months, PTI Chairman Imran Khan on November 30 announced his 'Plan C' to paralyse the country's major cities and eventually “shut down” the entire country.
Know more: Karachi will not shut down, Manzoor Wassan vows
Reiterating demands for Prime Minister Sharif's resignation and a fair probe into alleged rigging of the 2013 elections, the cricketer-turned-politician appeared confident that his new push for street agitation would succeed.
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On DawnNews
Comments (35) Closed
Dec 11, 2014 07:35pm
Government to come out clean. Why is it resorting to delaying tactics.
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Dec 11, 2014 07:37pm
Keep looking for loopholes Noon Goons!..Justice will prevail Inshallah... Love live Imran Khan.
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Dec 11, 2014 07:45pm
I do not understand why the PMLn is so afraid of thumb verification. Might be they did rigging and putting their goverment at stake to hide it.
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Dec 11, 2014 07:49pm
Every step should be according to constitution and should be dealt in forums as per constitution.
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Dec 11, 2014 07:56pm
@AsR .. What is not to understand? Why would anyone be opposed to finding out the reality unless they were the ones who did the rigging. Goverment should be knocking on every possible door to make the system better instead of pleading to courts to ignore the petitions.
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Dec 11, 2014 08:01pm
Do you now really need to count the votes?
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Dec 11, 2014 08:03pm
PML-N continue to show that they rigged the elections (35 punctures) and are scared of vote verifications. The govt. of PML-N went to the supreme court to challenge the date of presidential election last year against the will of Election Comission. Did they think about jurisdiction then? There days are numbered.
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Dec 11, 2014 08:28pm
What else is left to to prove that NS Govt is fake and has no mandate from the people of Pakistan.
A man on the street also understands why they don't want to do the election audit.
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Dec 11, 2014 08:29pm
Hiding again!!!
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Dec 11, 2014 08:31pm
Completely lawfull reply. When the matter is pending with Tribunals why approaching SC. Very weak petition from PTI
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Dec 11, 2014 09:01pm
The PTI has to learn to follow the law. They have NO RIGHT to bypass the law.
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Dec 11, 2014 09:11pm
"The government also pleaded before the court to rebuff the PTI’s petition for what it termed vague and generic allegations hurled in it. The PTI’s petition was also not attached with any evidence, added the PML-N response."
If so, then why are you worried, open them and expose IK. What's making you stop doing this, there is something fishy fishy..
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Dec 11, 2014 09:34pm
N League, truth will come out sooner or later. You cannot delay it forever. You are dealing with Imran Khan here.
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Dec 11, 2014 09:38pm
Constitutional process must be followed in any case.
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Dec 11, 2014 10:11pm
@Noor
Waste of time.
Even if PTI is winner on all these constituencies, PTI is still minority party i the national assembly and could not form government. PTI chief is dreaming of something will nevre happen in his life.
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Dec 11, 2014 10:13pm
@Liaquat : Was rigging Constitutional?
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Dec 11, 2014 10:27pm
Nothing is out of the reach of justice. Nothing at all. Dudes
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Dec 11, 2014 10:50pm
As per constitution the life of tribunals is only 4 months, within which they are suppose to resolve all the petitions. So SC should intervene and resolve the matter as constitution is already being violated by the tribunals that are lingering the investigation.
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Dec 11, 2014 11:40pm
Incriminating evidence implicating Nawaz and co, by the fact that they are fighting tooth and nail, not to have ballot bags opened and recounted.
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Dec 11, 2014 11:56pm
@Shuaib Bhat Which law? The biased and corrupt legal system has already failed to deliver justice and it is continuing to do so.
The last resort is the public demonstrations. People are fed up of lack of justice, lack of governance, lack of security, lack of jobs, lack of electricity etc.
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Dec 12, 2014 12:12am
According to the Noon league the petition was non-maintainable due to being sub judice in election tribunals. The election tribunals were supposed to give decision within 120 days miserably but failed to do so. No law is being followed by the tribunals therefore question of being sub judice does not arise.
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Dec 12, 2014 12:52am
This is so called PML-N for you. If you did not rig the election then why are you so scared to open just 4 constituencies? Now i understand. IK you are absolutely right.
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Dec 12, 2014 02:01am
What a shameless government ? These thugs will do whatever to avoid any investigation. That is what IK has been telling the nation and nation seem to be understanding at last. God help Pakistan
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Dec 12, 2014 02:04am
@Faraz
These tribunals were supposed to sort this out in 6 months according to constitution but nothing has happened. These people are thugs and will do whatever to avoid any investigation
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Dec 12, 2014 02:15am
So the court is being told about the law. Oh the irony!
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Dec 12, 2014 02:16am
@Liaquat
Does it take more than a year and a half for the constitutional route???
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Dec 12, 2014 02:17am
@Wajid Ali Justice needs to be done and Constitution clauses being obstacle to justice ought to be amended.
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Dec 12, 2014 02:30am
@Faraz But the problem is, it's been pending with them for a while now and no action is being taken...So in that case, other options need to be explored. Government should not have a problem opening any constituencies and if they have nothing to hide they should facilitate this process instead of blocking it.
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Dec 12, 2014 02:32am
@Lucky Star fair enough but at-least this way, the people who have resorted to corruption can be brought to justice and thrown out of politics for good.. Maybe PLMN without Shariffs or PPP without Zardaris is not such a bad idea after all.
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Dec 12, 2014 03:02am
I don't know the number of constituencies in Pakistan, but assuming a figure of 1000, 4 constituencies are 0.4% of the total.
Let the votes be re-counted and thumb impressions be verified.
If the verdict does not alter the present results, then PTI and IK would not have any legs to stand on, and this whole dharna etc would evaporate without the govt needing to give up anything.
Yet the govt has done everything in its power to block the recounting of votes, whilst denying any rigging allegation in the same breath. One does not need to be a rocket scientist that the govt is worried about something. Whilst they may not have been involved in any planned rigging, what they are worried about is that any large scale irregularities uncovered in one or more of the above 4 mentioned constituencies would cast a doubt over the entire election result, something they cannot bear to think about.
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Dec 12, 2014 03:44am
I am to come from US and want to shut down Karachi if asked by IK.
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Dec 12, 2014 05:37am
What nonsense is this! PML(N) loosing ground of its legitimacy on a daily basis.
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Dec 12, 2014 08:16am
It is to do with intent, the talks are heading for a failure as Government asked its Attorney General to file a reply to an earlier Petition of re-opening of 4 constituencies that has become the bone of contention with Imran Khan taking to the streets to determine as to the extent of voter rigging but most importantly how and who were involved or it had backing of PM. The Government with the application has lost all moral authority to continue in office but in the first instance, the 4 responsible for allegedly vote rigging should tender resignation. It may pave way to a more meaningful dialogue with Imran.
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Dec 12, 2014 09:25am
We need new constitution, old one was written and amended several time by illegitimate parliament's members to protect theirs Nawaz Sharif & Zardari corruptions.
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Dec 12, 2014 11:17am
opening of constituencies would resolve the issue once for all.....it is in the interest of the nation that the winning candidate should be given the seat ..if no wrong doing is found then present legislators would retain the seats ...and so not understood as to the main reason for N-league's objections in this matter. Why dragging the matter instead of going for resolution?
May be it is really not in SC jurisdiction but if N-league candidates are too sure that they have won without any rigging then what is the harm in acceding to PTI petitions ??
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