PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday sent multiple petitions against the alleged election rigging to the returning officers of several constituencies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa asking them to examine them if the final consolidated count of the votes polled on Feb 8 wasn’t made.

It declared that if Form 49 were issued and the Feb 8 polls results were consolidated, the petitioners should approach the concerned forum Election Commission of Pakistan.

The directions were issued by a bench comprising Justice Shakil Ahmad and Justice Waqar Ahmad during the hearing into petitions filed by PTI-backed candidates Sajid Nawaz, Taimur Saleem Jhagra, Mehmood Jan, Kamran Bangash, Arbab Jahandad, Mohammad Asim, Ali Zaman and Malik Shahab, who challenged election results alleging they’re tampered with.

On Monday, the PHC summoned returning officers of different constituencies for allegedly altering poll results and sought the ECP’s reply to pleas of several PTI-backed independent candidates.

Declares petitioners should contact ECP if final poll results issued

On Thursday, lawyers Shumail Ahmad Butt, Syed Sikandar Shah and Inam Yousafzai appeared for the petitioners, while Qazi Jawad Ehsanullah, Barrister Mudassir Amir and Yasin Raza represented the winning candidates.

Counsel for the ECP Mohsin Kamran also showed up in the court.

Mr Butt informed the bench that despite court orders, ECP had not yet submitted a response to the petitions.

However, the lawyer for the ECP insisted that the commission had formally responded to the Arbab Jahandad case.

Mr Butt said the petitioners were summoned by the returning officers and were told that they hadn’t issued Form 49 and that the ECP was bound to issue gazetted notification of election results within 14 days of the electoral exercise.

Mr Kamran said Form 49 was issued for some constituencies.

Mr Butt said the ECP had informed the bench on Monday about the issuance of all poll results notifications together.

“We don’t want a stay order against gazette notification and instead, justice is required to be dispensed,” he said.

Justice Ahmad observed that the court would send those petitions to the relevant returning officers with directions to examine them according to the law in case the final consolidation of poll results wasn’t made.

The bench later issued orders for the same.

It also declared that the petitioners should approach the relevant forum, ECP, for relief if Form 49 about results consolidation was issued.

“The controversy relating to the consolidation of the results under section 92, 95 of the Election Act 2017 and discrepancies, if any, in Form-45 and Form-47, either made in presence or absence of the petitioners or their polling agents or representatives shall be resolved by ECP after proper scrutiny of the record i.e. Form-45 and Form-47 with ECP or as may be produced by the petitioners subject to verification whereafter, an appropriate decision shall be made in terms of Article 218 and 224 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan 1973 as well as section 8 and 9 of Election Act 2017 after providing an opportunity of hearing to the learned counsel for the parties strictly in accordance with relevant sections of the Election Act 2017 read with Elections Rules 2017,” the court declared.

It added that if the petitioners had any other grievances, they would be at liberty to seek relief as available to them under the election law by approaching the relevant forum.

The court also directed the ECP to decide about that controversy before notifying poll winners in the official gazette.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2024