KARACHI, March 8: A division bench of the Sindh High Court on Saturday stayed re-polling at 18 polling stations of NA-202, Shikarpur, Sindh, and 17 polling stations of PS-12, Shikarpur, till March 14, 2008.

The winning candidates of the National People’s Party Dr Ibrahim Jatoi and Abid Hussain from NA-202 and PS-12, respectively, challenged the Election Commission’s order of March 4 for re-polling in the aforementioned constituencies on March 12, 2008.

The petitioners, through their counsel Khwaja Shams-ul-Islam, submitted that the EC, without scrutinizing the aspects of the case and without going through the relevant official record, ordered re-polling in the aforesaid constituencies.

He said the names of other returned candidates were published in the official gazette but those of his petitioners were not published so far because of the announcement of the EC to hold re-polling at the said polling stations.

He submitted that the EC cannot assume to be vested with jurisdiction to deviate from notifying candidates securing higher number of votes as a ‘returned candidate.’ He argued that only those cases could be taken up for consideration where illegalities and violation of laws were apparent on the face of the record and further, power to grant interim relief is required to be exercised on sound judicial principles.

The SHC bench, comprising Justice Azizullah M. Memon and Justice Arshad Noor Khan, after hearing counsel said: “On the basis of the above quoted case-law, interim relief regarding stay of operation of impugned order appears necessary. Hence, operation of the impugned order is stayed till the next date of hearing. Adjourned to 14/3/2008 according to roster.” —PPI