QUETTA: Balochistan Na­tio­­nal Party-Mengal (BNP-M) leader Lashkari Raisani has said that non-political entities have al­­ways been brought to power through illegal means to stop true representatives of people from reaching the parliament.

Speaking at a press conference at Sarawan House here on Friday, Mr Raisani welcomed the Balochistan High Court’s election tribunal’s verdict declaring Dep­uty Speaker Qasim Khan Suri’s election null and void.

“Thanks to our party workers, citizens of Quetta, and our legal team, there is going to be re-election in the NA-265 (Quetta 11) constituency,” he said.

The BNP-M leader is one of the candidates who had contested election from NA-265, but lost to Mr Suri. Later, Mr Suri was elected deputy speaker of the National Assembly.

“For over a year, we have been raising our voice over deliberately depriving of the people of our constituency of their parliamentary representative,” he said.

“Today, by the grace of Allah, we have got Mr Suri unseated through the Balochistan High Court’s election tribunal,” he said adding that in order to defend the sanctity of the vote and mandate of people “we are ready to knock at the last door of justice”.

Mr Raisani, in his petition filed in the election tribunal of the Balochistan High Court, had challenged the victory of Mr Suri from NA-265 and said that out of a total of 114,000 votes cast in the 2018 general elections in the constituency, 65,000 votes were invalid as these could not be verified and the election had been rigged. He had requested the tribunal to declare the victory of Mr Suri null and void.

Sardar Akhtar Jan Mengal, BNP-M chief, was also present in the press conference.

“The NA-265 constituency is situated in the heart of Quetta city. If this is the situation in 2018 general elections in the provincial capital, then what must have happened in rural parts of Balochistan where there was no media,” Sardar Mengal said.

“In the 2018 general elections, we had reservations and today’s judgement has endorsed our reservations,” Mr Mengal said.

According to official results announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan, Mr Suri had got 25,979 votes while Mr Raisani clinched 20,394 votes.

A total of 3,422 votes had been rejected by the ECP in the constituency terming these invalid.

Mr Mengal urged the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf to accept the verdict.

He said the judgement was not only a victory for the BNP-M, but also for all democratic forces of the country as it was based on justice.

“The verdict will increase the confidence of people in the judiciary and other institutions of the country,” Sardar Mengal said.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2019