KARACHI, Oct 24: Kunwar Khalid Yunus, Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s deputy convener and a candidate from NA-245, has challenged the Election Commission’s decision to withhold the notification of his name despite a clear majority he secured against his rival.
A petition in this regard was filed in the Sindh High Court on Thursday, which is likely to come up on Tuesday.
The petitioner secured 51,696 votes defeating his runner-up, Syed Munawar Hassan who secured 41,947 votes, with a lead of 9749 votes.
Result of the count in NA-245 was submitted by the Returning Officer on Oct 12 to the Respondent No. 2 as per Rule 28(1) of The Representation of the People (Conduct of Election) Rules, 1977.
On Oct 20, the EC published a Gazette Notification, as mandated by Section 42(4) of The Representation of the People’s Act, 1976, notifying the names of the MNA-elect from their respective constituencies. However, to the petitioner’s surprise, the result of NA-245 was not notified.
The petitioner claimed that to the best of his knowledge and information, there is no election dispute in this constituency. There has been no complain whatsoever of any MQM worker being involved in any malpractice. The only known incident, duly reported in press, is with regard to interference in the counting process in the evening of Oct 10 by Qazi Sadruddin (alias Sadru), a UC Nazim of the area belonging to a religious party, against whom FIR was registered and he was duly arrested.
The petitioner, having failed to find out the reason for non- issuance of Gazette Notification of the result of NA-245, ultimately sent a letter through Fax and TCS to the Election Commission, requesting for immediate notification of the result of NA-245 Karachi-VII.
It is his case that omission to notify the election result of NA-245 is highly irregular and unusual, and also prejudicial to the petitioner inasmuch the petitioner has only been able to find out that the result has been withheld by the Respondent No. 2 but without giving any reason.
It is his contention that election to the reserved seats for women and non-Muslims is to be held on proportionate basis, i.e. in proportion to the number of seats in the assembly secured by each party in the general elections from the list of nominated women candidates submitted by each party. The omission to notify the petitioner’s name, who has won election from the platform of Muttahida Qaumi Movement will adversely affect the result of reserved seats for women, for which the Respondent no. 2 is likely to announce a date any day.
It is his case that non-notification of the petitioner’s name in the official gazette as Successful/returned candidate from NA-245 Karachi VII is illegal.
Under the law, the Respondent No. 2 has no power to withhold or suspend the election result and publication of the name of the returned candidate in the official gazette, unless the election for that constituency are declared as void, which could only happen if the Election Commission is satisfied that there have been grave illegalities or violation of the provisions of the Representation of Peoples’ Act, 1976 or the rules made thereunder.
In such an eventuality, notification u/s. 108 has to be issued immediately for holding bye-elections. As such the Respondent No. 2 has assumed jurisdiction not vested unto it by law.
It is his case that no notice whatsoever has been served upon him nor any intimation has been given to the petitioner prior to withholding of the election results of NA-245 Karachi VII.
The principles of natural justice are to be read into every statute. The effect of withholding of election result by the Election Commission is that not only the candidates who have received the highest number of votes have not been notified as returned candidates but their constituency and constituents are also not represented in the legislature. The denial of representation both to the candidates securing the highest number of votes and to the constituency without issuing a notice and without giving a right of hearing is void ab initio.
It is his prayer that a mandatory injunction be issued, directing the Respondent No. 2 to publish the name of the petitioner in the official gazette as duly elected member of the National Assembly from the constituency NA-245 Karachi-VII.
It is also his prayer to issue prohibitory injunction restraining the Respondent from holding the election to the reserved women’s seat for the NA till the publication of the result.