KARACHI: The Election Tribunal, Karachi, on Thursday threw out an election petition against the election of Muttahida Qaumi Movement candidate to a provincial assembly seat as the petitioner died and his plea stood abated under the Representation of the People Act, 1976.

The tribunal, headed by former judge of the Sindh High Court Dr Zafar Ahmed Khan Sherwani, ordered that the petition “stands abated under Section 74 of the Act”, after it was informed of the demise of petitioner Sultan Khan Johari, a defeated candidate of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), on March 1.

The election petition remained undecided mainly due to an inordinate delay in the submission of report of National Database Registration Authority regarding the verification of thumbprints of the voters in the PS-128, won by Muttahida’s Waqar Hussain Shah.

The Muttahida candidate bagged 23,496 votes and was declared winning candidate and the runner-up candidate was Maulana Aurangzaib Farooqi who got 21,332 votes.

The PML-N defeated candidate in his petition submitted that the terrorists attacked the polling stations in the constituency and rigged the elections after two blasts.

He asked the court to direct the Election Commission of Pakistan for re-polling in the whole constituency and verification of votes through thumb impressions.

His petition was fixed for hearing on March 5 for the evidence of representative of the ECP when the petitioner’s counsel informed the court about the death of his client.

The counsel for the respondent Muttahida lawmaker contended that since the petitioner had expired, the election petition stood abated under Section 74 of the Act. However, counsel for the runner-up candidate argued that since the evidence of the parties in the petition had been concluded, the petition did not abate in terms of Section 74 of the Representation of the People Act, 1976 and requested for time to assist this tribunal on this point.

On Thursday, the tribunal took up the matter and Maulana Farooqui’s counsel conceded that he could not lay his hands on any case law in support of his arguments. He, however, asked the court to decide the petition on merit despite the death of the petitioner as the parties had completed their evidence and the report of National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) on thumb verification was received by this tribunal showing a large number of counterfoils bearing thumb impressions of the purported voters which could not be verified and the difference of votes between the returned candidate and him was very marginal.

While evidence of the parties was concluded on Nov 12, 2013, the petition could not be finally disposed of as a report of Nadra on thumb verification was awaited since Oct 2, 2013. It was received on Feb 20, 2014 when the tribunal put the interior secretary on notice to explain the delay in submission of the report.

The tribunal observed that the Section 74 of the Act provided that an election petition shall abate on the death of a sole petitioner or of the sole survivor of several petitioners. “In this Petition Mr. Sultan Khan Johari was the sole Petitioner who has expired on 1.3.2014 as per statement of his counsel Mr. Aslam Bhutta, therefore, the petition shall abate”, it added.

The head of the tribunal observed that there was no condition attached with this provision that could save the abatement of the petition.

It may be pointed out here that thumbprints verification reports on three provincial assembly seats — PS-32, PS-33 and PS-128 — were called by the election tribunal over five months ago. However, Nadra submitted none of the reports.

According to Nadra sources, as many as 20 verification reports of different provincial and national assembly seats were still pending disposal.

Informed sources told Dawn that the election tribunal at Karachi had forwarded the counterfoils and other material of PS-128 on Oct 2, 2013 and PS-32 and PS-33 on Oct 12, 2013. They said an election petition was required to be disposed of within four months of its filing under Section 67 (1-A) of the Representation of the People Act, 1976. Nevertheless, the sources said, a considerable delay in the disposal of election petition was caused on account of Nadra verification of thumb impressions.

Re-poll in NA-202 ordered

The Election Tribunal, Sukkur, ordered re-election on 21 polling stations in the NA-202 Shikarpur-I constituency, our correspondent in Shikarpur adds.

Pakistan Peoples Party candidate Aftab Shahban Mirani had filed an appeal in the election tribunal against the results declared by Election Commission of Pakistan.

Dr Muhammad Ibrahim Jatoi had secured 56,633 votes and Aftab Shahban Mirani 55,381 in the general election held on May 11, 2013.

Mr Mirani, the defeated candidate, had alleged that his rival had rigged election at the 21 polling stations.

The matter was referred by the election tribunal to Nadra for scrutiny and authentication of the votes.

According to the report furnished by Nadra before the election tribunal, 20,320 votes were found valid, 9,600 were found not identifiable, 1,098 votes were found as cast twice, fake computerised national identity cards were used in 2,283 votes while the CNICs on 1,133 votes did not match the thumb impressions.

On polling station 209 (Farid Jatoi), a voter named Hadi Bux Jatoi, son of Sakhi, CNIC 43302-2297441-1, cast 310 votes; at polling station 216 Haji Misri, an unidentified person, cast 41 votes; at polling station 204 (Qadir Bux Pahore), a woman named Hajra, resident of Dokri district in Larkana, cast four votes, and 35 counterfoils had no fingerprints.

The election tribunal after completing the legal proceedings of appeal, ordered re-polling on the 21 polling stations of the NA-202 Shikarpur-I constituency.

The result of the 21 polling stations showed that Aftab Shahban Mirani secured 373 votes and Ibrahim Jatoi 15,520 votes. These votes have been invalidated. The result of the remaining 195 polling stations has been kept intact, in which Mr Mirani secured 53,004 votes and Dr Jatoi 39,110.

Meanwhile, Dr Muhammad Ibrahim Jatoi has contacted senior lawyers for challenging the order of the election tribunal in the Supreme Court.