LAHORE: In what is being termed a vindication of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s stance on rigging in the 2013 general elections, an election tribunal annulled on Monday results of the NA-125 constituency and ordered a re-poll on the seat won by PML-N leader Khawaja Saad Rafique, the Railways Minister.

Javed Rasheed Mehboobi, member of the Faisalabad election tribunal, allowed the petition of the runner-up candidate, Hamid Khan of the PTI, and asked the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to hold a fresh election in the constituency within 60 days.

The tribunal also allowed the petition of PTI candidate Hafiz Farhat Abbas who had challenged the victory of PML-N’s Mian Naseer from PP-155 (Punjab Assembly) and ordered a re-poll in the constituency.

In the NA-125 election, Saad Rafique had secured 123,416 votes and his opponent Hamid Khan 84,495.

Mian Naseer Ahmad was elected MPA from PP-155 with 63,709 votes.

Election tribunal annuls NA-125 results on PTI candidate’s plea and orders re-poll

The proceedings of the case were transferred to Faisalabad from Lahore after Hamid Khan said he had no trust in the member of the Lahore tribunal. Javed Mehboobi held the proceedings in Lahore. The tribunal had reserved its verdict in the case on April 27.

In its short order, the tribunal said grave irregularities were found in the record of seven polling stations of NA-125 inspected by the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra).

It noted that the election staff (returning officer and presiding officers) had not discharged their duties proficiently. The RO had compiled the results on the basis of unverified information, it added.

The tribunal said the ECP should introduce a legislation to punish election staff for negligence in their duties. It said the petitioner (Hamid Khan) had failed to establish rigging charges, but irregularities found in the record raised doubts over the validity of the poll.

Initially, the tribunal had carried out the inspection of the constituency’s record through a local commission last year. The commission headed by a retired sessions judge found a number of irregularities committed by the election staff.

In one of the paragraphs of its report, the commission wrote: “In fact each polling bag of the constituency is in the condition of such a mess that it can be said to be a trash and rubbish for reasons best known to the polling personnel. The polling bag of each polling station shows that the process of the election carried out is the result of gross-mismanagement.”

Later, the tribunal, while allowing an application of Hamid Khan, had asked Nadra to carry out verification of the electors’ thumb impressions. Ten of the 265 polling stations were randomly selected by the tribunal for the purpose. The seven polling stations where Nadra had found abnormality included 5, 6, 98, 107, 110, 111 and 120.

Meanwhile, talking to journalists outside the tribunal, Saad Rafique said the decision was actually against returning and presiding officers. He asked why he and voters had been punished for the sin of election staff.

Asked if he had any plan to challenge the tribunal’s verdict in the Supreme Court, the railways minister said the decision would be taken by the party. But he said he was ready to contest the election again. He regretted that the requisites of justice were not met.

Hamid Khan’s counsel Mohammad Hussain accused Saad Rafique of paying Rs20 million to the presiding and returning officers to engineer the results. He also alleged that witnesses of the case had been harassed by the government.

Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2015

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