ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) plea to suspend the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision to hold fresh by-poll in the entire NA-75 constituency of Sialkot’s Daska tehsil.

A three-judge SC bench comprising Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah and Justice Yahya Afridi, however, also directed the ECP to furnish complete record on the basis of which it took the decision to hold fresh by-polls in the entire NA-75 Daska constituency.

The ECP while deciding an application of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz candidate, Syeda Nosheen Iftikhar, on Feb 25 had ordered re-election in the Daska constituency on March 18 over the suspicions that the results might have been falsified. Later, PTI candidate Ali Asjad Malhi challenged the ECP decision before the Supreme Court.

While rejecting the PTI plea and asking the ECP to furnish relevant record for its decision, the SC bench also directed the counsel for Ms Iftikhar, Advocate Salman Akram Raja, to submit relevant record regarding the Daska by-election.

Seeks complete record from ECP to ascertain basis of its decision

Earlier at the hearing, PTI candidate’s lawyer, Mohammad Shahzad Shaukat, sought time from the court to go through the detailed order of the ECP issued not before March 8.

While seeking suspension of the ECP order for re-polling in the entire constituency until the next hearing, the counsel argued that even the PTI head, Prime Minister Imran Khan, had no objection to re-polling only in the 23 polling stations where the election process had faced problems.

The SC expressed willingness to give some time but declined the petitioner’s request for suspension of the ECP order to hold fresh by-poll until the next hearing.

Justice Bandial reminded the petitioner that a person, namely Zeeshan, was killed in firing in the constituency on the day of polling, whereas Justice Sajjad Ali Shah observed that the commission could take any action, even without a formal complaint in a constituency where election was in process.

The petitioner pleaded that it was a settled law that the ECP powers under Article 218 of the Constitution read with Sections 8 and 9 of the Election Act, 2017 were not absolute or unfettered, but subject to the judicial review by the courts of the law.

Admittedly, the complaint by PML-N’s Ms Iftikhar pertained only to illegality and irregularity to the extent of 23 polling stations, the petition emphasised, adding that the ECP’s short order issued on Feb 25 was based on “absolute misreading and non-reading of the record” available on the file. This exercise, the petition alleged, prima facie negated the findings given by the ECP in the short order that lacked mention of any negligence on part of the administration.

The petitioner regretted that the Daska constituency had been put to a “second by-election without any legal justification”, insisting that no violation had occurred during the polling till its closure.

According to the petition, the ECP was in such a state of urgency that it had to resort to passing a short order, which did not contain any reason rather in utter derogation of all the settled principles of law.

Moreover, it alleged that the ECP blatantly violated the provisions of the Election Act 2017 while passing the Feb 25 short order, as no basis for the alleged satisfaction of ECP existed that the election was marred by such grave illegalities that had materially affected the result of the entire constituency.

The petitioner pleaded that during the course of hearing, the record of 23 polling stations had been minutely examined and the returning officer found record of nine of them satisfactory.

Therefore, it was beyond comprehension how a fresh poll in the entire constituency was ordered by the ECP in disregard to the nature and dimensions of its own proceedings, the petition regretted.

Published in Dawn, March 11th, 2021