PESHAWAR, Sept 3: Accepting three objection petitions, the member, Election Commission of Pakistan, Justice Qazi Ahsanullah Qureshi, issued directives here on Tuesday for making amendments to two provincial assembly constituencies of Battagram district.
The petitions were filed against the inclusion of three Patwar circles of Battagram Tehsil — Thakot, Paimal Sharif and Hutal — in PF-60, mostly comprising Allai Tehsil. The petitioners prayed that the three areas be included in PF-59, comprising Battagram Tehsil.
The petitions were filed by a former MPA, Fateehullah Khan Allai, Yaqoob Khan and Aurangzaib Khan. Qazi Mohammad Anwer appeared for the petitioners and contended that geographic facts and ground realities were overlooked while including the three areas in PF-60. The voters as well as candidates would face hardships in the election process due to delimitation in such a manner, he added.
He said population was not the only criterion for delimitation of constituencies and other factors, including geographically compact areas, existing boundaries of administrative units, facility of communications and public convenience, should also be kept in mind.
It is worth mentioning that these cases were remanded back to the member, Election Commission, when writ petitions were filed by the present petitioners as in the final notification of the constituencies, published on June 28, their request was not entertained and the EC had maintained preliminary list of areas of PF-59 and PF-60 published on March 26.
Before the high court, the petitioners had pleaded that during hearing of the objections filed against preliminary delimitation of constituencies by the Election Commission, the member, Justice Qureshi, had accepted the plea of the petitioners on June 1.
However, without issuing a notice to the petitioners, the said member reviewed his earlier order and instead issued another order on June 18 whereby he turned down the objections of the petitioners. Due to same reason the high court remanded these cases back to the member.
PETITIONS DISMISSED: The member, Election Tribunal, dismissed two petitions filed against the inclusion of Bana Mari area in PF-3 and Shah Dhand in PF-2.
The petitioner, Mohammad Idrees, said historically, Shah Dhand was not in PF-2 and was attached to Hazar Khwani, therefore, it should be included in PF-6. Former MPA Haji Adeel, now contesting from PF-6 and candidate of PPP on PF-2, Syed Zahir Shah, supported the plea and requested that Shah Dhand be included in PF-6.
The PML(N) candidate, Haji Afzal, opposing the petition, said these areas were adjacent to Gulbahar colony and could not be detached from it. Though most of the voters there were of ANP, he added, he was opposed to any move to remove Shah Dhand from his constituency.
Similarly, petitioner Mohammad Umer requested that Bana Mari should be detached from PF-3 and included in PF-4. However, his request was turned down.
The two petitions were also remanded back to the member, Election tribunal, by the high court.