KARACHI: An election tribunal on Thursday issued notices to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and other respondents on two petitions filed by aspirants of Jamaat-i-Islami against the results of as many Sindh Assembly seats from the city.

Citing the ECP, chief election commissioner, rival/returned candidates and others as respondents, petitioners Mohammad Ahmed and Nusratullah submitted that they had contested the general elections from PS-124 (Karachi Central-III) and PS-126 (Karachi Central-V) respectively.

They impugned the victories of returned candidates of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s Abdul Basit from PS-124 and Mohammad Ikhtiar Alam from PS-126.

The petitioners submitted that as per Form-45s, they had easily won the constituencies in question, but the results were fraudulently changed and the petitioners were shown runner-ups in the impugned From-47s.

SHC extends its earlier restraining order against recount of votes in PS-112

They asked the tribunal to set aside the impugned notifications regarding the returned candidates.

After preliminary hearings, the election tribunal, headed by Justice Adnan Iqbal Chaudary of Sindh High Court, issued notices to respondents as well as federal and provincial law officers for May 7.

Meanwhile, the SHC on Thursday extended its earlier restraining order against an order of the ECP about the recount of votes of candidates on a provincial assembly seat PS-112 (Keamari-II).

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-backed independent candidate Sirbuland Khan petitioned the SHC and submitted that he had secured 16,287 votes and won the election against the Pakistan Peoples Party aspirant Asif Khan, who got 10,784 votes.

The petitioner submitted that the ECP had on April 1 ordered recounting of votes of 26 polling stations in the constituency and challenged the same before the SHC.

The lawyer for petitioner argued that the petitioner had already taken oath as an MPA and despite this, the ECP had ordered the returning officer (RO) for a recount on an application of rival candidate Asif and further asked the RO to complete the recounting process within three days and prepare Form-49 accordingly.

He stated that under Section 95(6) of the Election Act, 2019 the ECP had no jurisdiction to recount the votes after consolidation of the results.

On Thursday, RO Nawaz Kalwar in his reply submitted that in the light of ECP’s order, the recounting process was completed on April 4 and Froms-48 and 49 had been prepared after the recount.

He also filed a copy of From-49, which said that after the recount, the PPP candidate stood winner with11,724 votes while petitioner was runner-up with 9,943 votes.

A two-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi adjourned the hearing till May 9 and said that its earlier restraining order would continue till the next hearing.

On April 5, the SHC had suspended the operation of the impugned order of ECP about recount till April 18.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2024