KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday restrained the Election Tribunal at Karachi from proceeding on election petitions against Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and a lawmaker of the Pakistan Peoples Party till further orders.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice Maqbool Baqar was seized with the petitions of the chief minister and lawmaker Nawab Ali Wassan, who challenged the dismissal of their respective applications by the election tribunal regarding maintainability of the election petitions against them.
The two PPP lawmakers had filed applications before the tribunal, headed by former judge of the Sindh High Court Zafar Ahmed Khan Sherwani, under Section 63 of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1976, challenging the maintainability of the election petitions against their victory.The tribunal, however, dismissed their applications on Dec 6, 2013 when it also ordered the National Database and Registration Authority to carry out verification of thumb impressions of voters on entire ballots in the PS-29 (Khairpur), the provincial assembly seat won by Mr Shah, and in NA-215 (Khairpur), the national assembly seat won by Nawab Ali Wasan.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Ghous Ali Shah had lost elections on both the seats in his hometown Khairpur to Mr Wasan and Mr Shah, respectively. Mr Shah was declared to have won the PS-29 seat after securing 44,362 votes, while Mr Wasan won NA-215 by bagging 91,809 votes.
The PML-N leader later challenged the elections results, alleging that his rival candidates had carried out massive rigging in the elections.
Later, the PPP lawmakers through their applications before the tribunal challenged the maintainability of the elections petitions against their victory.
However, the tribunal dismissed both the applications and ruled that the election petitions against them were maintainable in the tribunal.
The election petitions against the chief minister and the PPP lawmaker were initially filed in the Election Tribunal, Sukkur, headed by former district and sessions judge Zaheerudin Leghari.
The two PPP men, represented by Advocates Farooq H. Naek and Shazia Hanjrah, moved the SHC through constitutional petitions against the tribunal expressing no confidence in the head of the tribunal.
They said that Mr Leghari was ‘biased’ for being a ‘mureed’ (disciple) of the Pir Pagara, the chief of the PML-Functional, an ally of the PML-N.Subsequently, the SHC also restrained the Sukkur election tribunal from proceeding with the election petitions against the PPP legislators and later the Election Commission of Pakistan shifted the petitions to the Karachi election tribunal.
On Tuesday, the counsel of the PPP lawmakers submitted that the election tribunal erred in dismissing the applications and the impugned order was based on surmises and contrary to law and decisions of the superior judiciary.
They asked the court to set aside the tribunal order. The bench ordered status quo on both the petitions after hearing preliminary arguments.
The hearing was put off to March 6.
Meanwhile, a larger bench headed by Justice Munib Akhtar directed the counsel of the two PPP legislators to file fresh petitions seeking review of its earlier order whereby their petitions against the order of the tribunal regarding verification of voters’ thumbprints on ballots in their respective constituencies were dismissed.
The PPP leaders had moved the SHC against the tribunal’s order but their petitions were dismissed by an SHC bench on Jan 20.Advocate Naek submitted that he filed appeals in the Supreme Court of Pakistan against the SHC order but the apex court disposed of them with the directions that review petitions before it be sent to the SHC and to be treated as review petitions.
He requested the court to allow him time to properly prepare the review petitions and file them.
The bench granted three weeks time to him and adjourned the hearing to March 10.
Mobile phone jammers case
A division bench headed by Chief Justice Maqbool Baqar directed the chief secretary, law minister, prisons minister, home secretary and prisons chief to furnish their respective replies in a petition seeking installation of cell phone jammers in all the 17 penitentiaries in the province.
The petition was filed by a civil right campaigner and secretary general of the United Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
He said that gangsters were operating their network through mobile phones from inside the prisons where contraband narcotics were also available in connivance of the jail administration.
The petitioner submitted that he sent several applications to the authorities concerned for the installation of jamming devices, but the equipment was installed in Karachi central prison only.
He asked the court to direct the respondents to ensure the installation of the mobile phone jamming devices in all the prisons across the province.
The bench issued notices to the respondent and the provincial government law officer and put off the hearing to March 4.