ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is set to announce on Friday (today) verdicts on petitions filed by three members of the National Assembly seeking to transfer election petitions against them pending before the only election tribunal constituted for the federal capital.

PML-N lawmakers Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, Anjum Aqeel Khan and Raja Khurram Sheh­zad Nawaz had requested the ECP to transfer poll petitions against them pending before the tribunal comprising Justice Tariq Mehmood Jehangiri.

Days after constituting an election tribunal for Rawalpindi and Islamabad headed by a retired high court judge Shakoor Paracha under a controversial ordinance, the ECP had on June 10 ordered transfer of petitions against all the three MNAs from the capital.

“The record reveals that on 02.05.2024, on the very first hearing, the tribunal directed the ECP to submit original forms 45 and 46, respectively, although the ECP was not implicated by the present resp­ondent as a party in the panel of respondents,” the ECP order said.

“There is no option available to a tribunal to cure any legal de­­fect occasioned therein the ele­­ction petition, prescribed under Sections l42 to 144 of the Elections Act, 2017, and in case if any provision of Sections 142, 143 or 144 of the Act is not complied with, such election pe­­tition shall be summarily rejec­ted in terms of Section I45(l) of the Act. In case a petition is presented beyond the statutory period provided under Section 142 of the Act, such legal defect could not be requisitioned either by the office of the tribunal or the tribunal itself,” it said.

Section l5l of the Act empowers the ECP to transfer election petitions from one tribunal to another at any stage. It is the exclusive domain of the ECP to provide justice to the parties in the petition and for fair decision in the matter in accordance with the law and the rules,“ it said.

The IHC had on June 11 suspended the decision of the ECP to transfer election petitions to a tribunal led by a retired judge. Chief Justice Aamar Farooq, while hearing the petitions of the PTI runner-up candidates from Isla­mabad — Shoaib Shah­een, Mohammad Ali Bukhari, and Amir Mughal — issued a stay order against the decision.

After months of tussle with the LHC over the question of powers to appoint election tribunals, the ECP, in the first week of October, had notified eight election tribunals, four of whom are consisted of retired judges. Abdul Shakoor Paracha this time was appointed for Rawalpindi tribunal.

The notification came three days after the Supreme Court annulled the LHC’s order where it said that the ECP was bound to appoint as election tribunals judges nominated by the high court’s chief justice.

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2024