ISLAMABAD: PTI candidate Hamid Khan, who lost 2013’s general elections in the NA-125 (Lahore) constituency, requested the Sup­reme Court on Monday to order the Election Commis­sion of Pakistan (ECP) to bear expenses of verification of voters’ thumb impressions by Nadra, instead of him.

“It is prayed that the Jan 26, 2016 order may kindly be recalled / modified to the extent of expenses being borne by me and that ECP may kindly be ordered to bear the expenses of verification / checking of counter foils of constituency NA-125,” he said in an application he filed in the court.

Accepting the arguments of Advocate Ahmed Awais, who was representing Mr Khan, the court on Jan 26 had ordered the National Database Registration Authority to conduct verification of thumb impressions on the available ballot paper counterfoils used to cast votes in the 265 polling stations of the constituency.

Mr Khan was told that he would have to bear the cost of the exercise.

Headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, a three-member bench is seized with an appeal of Federal Railway Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique seeking to set aside the May 4, 2015 cancellation of his election by an election tribunal.

Hamid Khan argued that he had to bear expenses of checking of vote bags of 265 polling stations through a commission when his petition challenging the election of Saad Rafique was being heard by an election tribunal.

Bags selected by the tribunal were sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory and then to Nadra and were checked at his expense, he said. He even bore the cost of final checking of bags of 10 polling stations by the tribunal itself, he added.

“During the checking of the election record, many illegal acts, omissions and discrepancies were found, details of which are mentioned in the record of the tribunal,’’ he said.

“Such an exercise has established that the ECP has failed to hold the elections in NA-125 in a free and fair manner in violation of Article 218(3) of constitution and the 2012 judgment of the Supreme Court in the Workers Party Pakistan case,” he alleged.

In the judgment the apex court had held that it was the sole responsibility of the ECP to conduct elections honestly, justly, fairly and in accordance with law.

Therefore, Mr Khan argued, as respondent No.1 in the present case, he could not be held responsible for illegal acts, omissions and failures on part of the ECP and its officials like the district returning officer, returning officers and presiding officers.

Thus he could not be made to bear expenses of verification of counterfoils of NA-125; he said and added that it was the ECP which should be made to bear the expenses.

When bags of 10 polling stations were checked by the tribunal, he said, counter foils were not found in most of them — a fact which was ‘sufficient to establish that whatever happened on the polling day and thereafter in the office of the returning officer caused rigging in the favour of Saad Rafique.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2016