QUETTA: The election tribunal of the Balochistan High Court on Friday ordered re-election in the NA-265 (Quetta-II) constituency after declaring the election held on July 25 last year in the constituency null and void.

Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Qasim Khan Suri was elected MNA from NA-265 (Quetta-II) on a ticket of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf in the general election held in July last year.

The election results of NA-265-Quetta-II were challenged in the election tribunal of the Balochistan High Court by Balochistan National Party-Mengal leader Nawabzada Lashkari Raisani, who also contested the poll from the same constituency as the BNP-M candidate, pleading the tribunal to declare the result of the constituency null and void as massive rigging had taken place.

After hearing arguments of the two sides, the election tribunal had reserved its verdict on Sept 14.

The judgement was announced on Friday by Justice Abdullah Baloch of the Balochistan High Court.

Mr Suri and Mr Raisani were not present in the court when the judgement was announced.

ECP asked to hold fresh election in NA-265 constituency

In his petition, Mr Raisani had alleged that out of the total number of votes cast in constituency in the election, more than half were invalid and thus the election victory of Mr Suri should be declared null and void.

While announcing the verdict, Justice Baloch declared the election in NA-265 (Quetta-II) null and void and ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan to hold fresh election in the constituency.

In its decision, the tribunal further said that in the polling in NA-265 (Quetta-II) there was evidence of record rigging on the day of polling.

“Out of one million and 14 thousand votes, over 65 thousand votes were bogus,” Mohammad Riaz, senior advocate and counsel for Mr Raisani, said.

The report of Nadra about verification of votes was also presented in the election tribunal. In the report, Nadra said that more than 52,000 polled votes could not be verified.

Advocate Nazeer Agha also represented Nawabzada Lashkari Raisani while former law minister advocate Babar Awan appeared before the tribunal on behalf of Mr Suri.

Mehmood Khan Achakzai, chairman of the Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), Hafiz Hamdullah of the JUI-F and former speaker of the Balochistan Assembly Raheela Hameed Khan Durrani were also candidates in the same constituency.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2019