KARACHI: The Sindh president of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Haleem Adil Sheikh, on Wednesday moved an election tribunal impugning the result of a National Assembly constituency in the city.

In his election petition the provincial chief of the embattled PTI submitted that he had contested Feb 8 general elections as an independent candidate from NA-238 (Karachi East-VI).

Citing the Election Commission of Pakistan, provincial election commissioner, returning officer, the returned candidate from the subject constituency Sadiq Iftikhar and others as respondents, the petitioner asked the tribunal to set aside the impugned result/notification and declare him returned candidate or order fresh election in the entire constituency.

He contended that as per Form-45s, obtained by his polling agents from presiding officers at all the polling stations of the constituency, he secured the highest number of votes (84,049) while around 10,000 votes were polled to MQM-P’s aspirant Mr Iftikhar.

Asks court to set aside impugned results of NA-238 and declare him successful

However, the petitioner asserted that his votes were reduced to 36,885 through tampering with and forgery of Form45s, Form-47 and Form-48 while votes of his rival candidate were inflated to 54,385 in the impugned result.

He argued that the petitioner was in jail during general elections and his polling agents were thrown out of the offices of RO before the start of consolidation of poll results without assigning any reason and the RO and others had flouted the electoral laws and rigged the entire electoral process.

The PTI leader also asserted that initially he had filed a petition in Sindh High Court on the subject matter and the SHC had referred the same to the ECP with direction to pass a speaking order on the issue after hearing the petitioner, but the election watchdog dismissed the same over jurisdiction issue through a short order.

The lawyer for Mr Sheikh, advocate Ali Tahir, said the election petition was likely to be taken up soon before one of the two election tribunals set up at the SHC principal seat in Karachi to hear and decide election matters for the areas falling within the Karachi division.

While talking to media on the premises of the SHC, the PTI Sindh chief was of the view that this issue was not just about obtaining mandate, but safeguarding the votes of the public as despite all challenges, the people had exercised their right to vote.

About alleged electoral fraud, Mr Sheikh said: “We are not only going to the tribunals, but also approaching the Supreme Court against those officers who had stolen the nation’s votes and gave them to someone else.”

He also said that an application was filed before a sessions court for lodging a case against RO Qazi Farooq Ahmed and district returning officer Altaf Sheikh.

He claimed that as per Form-45s, his party was winning 22 NA seats in Karachi and two in Hyderabad as well as 38 seats of provincial assembly, but the seats were snatched.

The PTI Sindh president also said that a million march would be held in Karachi for the rights of city’s people and party’s core committee would announce the date formally.

SHC issues notice to ECP

The Sindh High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the ECP and others on a petition filed by a PTI-backed aspirant seeking copies of various election forms.

Alamgir Khan submitted that he had contested the general elections from NA-236 (East-II) as an independent candidate since his party had lost its electoral symbol.

He argued that the officials concerned were not issuing certified copies of Form 33, 36, 45, 46, 47, 48 and 49 of the constituency in question while the same had also not been uploaded yet on the website of the ECP.

The two-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi asked a provincial law officer to check the website of election watchdog whether such forms were available.

After going through the website, the law officer submitted that Form-45s of subject constituency had not been uploaded yet.

The lawyer for the petitioner argued that neither Form-45s nor Form-47 of NA-236 had been available on the website of the ECP.

The bench issued notices to the ECP and other respondents for March 21 with direction to file comments for not uploading the requested documents and also asked the ECP to depute a senior official to appear in court at next hearing.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2024