LAHORE, Nov 3: An election tribunal on Friday scrapped the National Assembly membership of state minister Saima Akhtar Bharwana and declared that the seat in the national legislature from NA-90 has fallen vacant.

Comprising Justice Syed Zahid Husain of the Lahore High Court, the tribunal directed the Election Commission to make arrangements for a by-election in the constituency.

The tribunal’s order said that Ms Bharwana could contest the by-poll as she was not disqualified to contest the by-election.

It accepted an election petition of People’s Party Parliamentarians candidate Sahibzada Mohammad Nazir Sultan from the constituency. He stated that his defeat owed mainly to rejecting and declaring invalid such a number of votes which were around four times more than the difference of votes between his and Ms Bharwana’s.

Advocate Asim Hafeez, appearing for Mr Sultan, stated that presiding officers of a few polling stations in the constituency had rejected as many as 2,910 and more than 2,000 of them were cast in his client’s favour. He secured 56,180 votes against a tally of 56,647 obtained by Ms Bharwana, the lawyer said and added that\ she was declared victorious by the returning officer by a margin of 467 votes.

Mr Hafiz said that the margin of victory was much lower than the votes rejected or declared invalid and if the election record was examined, the verdict would go in his client’s favour.

The tribunal examined in detail ballot papers, took an appraisal of the election material with the assistance of the Punjab chapter of the Election Commission and ascertained reasons for the rejection of each vote.

The tribunal observed that the rejected and invalid votes were not examined nor the reason was given for rejection which was mandatory for the presiding officers.

Ms Bharwana’s counsel said that she was the only woman in the national legislature who had won as an independent candidate. He stated that a decision against her at a stage when the National Assembly was completing its five-year tenure and the next general elections had been called next year would be unwarranted.

Justice Husain observed that the references submitted by the counsel were irrelevant as no consideration other than merit could prevail in making a decision.