LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday dismissed a petition calling for the voiding of the May 2013 general elections after a brief hearing.

The petition was heard by a single member bench comprising Justice Mansoor Ali Shah after the court initially accepted it for hearing.

During the hearing, the court inquired if petitioner Mohammad Shabbir had any evidence to substantiate his claims, to which he responded that he did not have any proof to produce in the court.

The court said that former additional secretary of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Afzal Khan, who the applicant had referred to in his petition, also did not have any proof to support his claims of rigging.

The petition had contended that after the allegations levelled by Afzal Khan, not only had it become clear that last year’s poll had not been transparent but that there had been massive rigging as well.

The petitioner had demanded that in this scenario the poll should be declared void and a re-election be held in the country.

He had said that in such a scenario, the prime minister, the chief ministers and other senior government figures would no longer be eligible to retain their positions and hence should step down on legal and moral grounds.

The development came a day after the ECP rejected allegations of massive rigging in the 2013 general elections levelled by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan as well as Afzal Khan's accusations.

The PTI has been staging a sit-in in the federal capital, calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on account of what it calls "massive rigging" in the 2013 polls. Protesters from Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) are also holding their own sit-ins for the ouster of Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif in Islamabad with the government trying to arrive at an arrangement with the two groups.

However, both parties have called off talks with the government, saying the dialogue has failed to achieve the results that they had hoped to achieve.

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