KARACHI, June 22: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday stayed the fresh by-election process in three city constituencies where balloting was conducted on May 12.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Saiyed Saeed Ashhad and Justice Zia Perwez passed the order on an urgent application moved by the provincial government in a writ petition filed by the three Muttahida Qaumi Movement candidates who won the May 12 polls according to initial results compiled by the returning officers.

However, the Election Commission withheld the results on June 9, set aside the by-elections and ordered fresh polls in NA-240, NA-246 and PS-127. The bench directed that notices in the restraint plea be issued for June 28, when the petition was fixed for hearing and the operation of the impugned EC order and notification be suspended in the meanwhile.

The by-elections were scheduled for August 9 and the nomination papers were invited by the commission from June 17 to June 23. Arguing in favour of the stay plea, Advocate-General Anwar Mansoor Khan submitted that if the petition was allowed and the EC order, which was 'patently illegal', was declared void, then the electoral exercise already set in motion would prove futile.

The AG stated that the Sindh government, which has been cited as a respondent in the petition, would have to deploy a large contingent of police, Rangers and armed forces personnel at a time when it was striving to normalize the law and order situation created by acts of violence.

Besides administrative staff, 2,520 election officers, including members of the subordinate judiciary, shall have to be posted in these constituencies. A huge amount would be spent by the provincial government in addition to the Rs5 million allocated by the EC.

"No purpose will be served by spending public money and endangering public safety at this stage because if the petition succeeds, the entire process will become null void and there will be no need to hold fresh by-elections," the AG said.

He stated that these considerations were brought to the EC's notice by the provincial home department but the commission disposed them of on June 18, saying that a petition was already pending before the Sindh High Court and the government might, if so advised, approach the court.

It passed another order the same day citing an 'irrelevant' Supreme Court judgment in a case wherein by-polls had been delayed for over a year and no interim relief had been sought by the parties involved.

The AG said that the EC order of June 9 was not sustainable in law. No 'illegalities', least of all 'grave illegalities', were reported by the election staff. Reports submitted by the returning officers and the police and accepted by the EC as authentic said the balloting was smooth.

Trouble was reported only at 16 out of a total of 701 polling stations. Firing occurred near one polling station, where balloting was suspended for 45 minutes. The voter turnout and the number of ballots cast were commensurate with the past electoral record of the constituencies.

The EC, he said, had no power to invoke Section 103-AA of the Representation of People Act and make an 'unprecedented order' in the circumstances. The commission was worried over the complaints and counter-complaints made by individual candidates, who did not care to press or prove their allegations before it.

Complaints made by rival candidates could only be looked into by election tribunals, which had already been constituted by the EC. Unsubstantiated individual complaints and violence could not be allowed to subvert the electoral process, the AG submitted.