KARACHI, Jan 13: Notices were issued to two members of the Sindh Assembly on Monday on two petitions challenging their election.
Petitioner Murad Ali Shah of the PML (Q) claimed before an election tribunal, comprising Justice Ghulam Rabbani of the Sindh High Court, that he polled the largest number of votes in provincial assembly constituency PS-20 (Naushero Feroze-II) but his defeat, by 230 votes, was manipulated by changing the election results. Presiding officers at seven polling stations issued one set of initial results in Form XIV to his polling agents and sent another set showing divergent counts to the returning officer. His successful rival, Abdul Haq Bhurt of the PPP, had his alias “Dost Mohammad Bhurt,” mentioned as an independent candidate in collusion with the election staff. In the forms sent to the returning officer, however, the votes bagged by the “two Bhurts” were consolidated and credited to Abdul Haq’s tally.
Citing one example the petitioner submitted that Form XIV issued to his agent at polling station No 86 showed A. H. Bhurt receiving 231 votes and D. M. Bhurt getting 230 votes. According to the form sent to the returning officer, Mr Bhurt obtained 361 votes while his own name did not appear on the result sheet at all.
The tribunal issued notice to the returned candidate for Jan 23.
Another petitioner, Sarfraz Junejo of the PML (F), who contested the PA poll from PS-65 (Mirpurkhas-II), claimed that his successful rival, Irfan Ali Shah of the PPP, was a bank loan defaulter to the tune of Rs944 million as a director of Mirpurkhas Sugar Mills Ltd. He, however, obtained an injunction in his favour from the Sindh High Court at the time of scrutiny of his nomination papers by filing a judicial miscellaneous application, which he withdrew after the election.
The petitioner said, according to the judicial record, the MPA was admittedly a defaulter and was disqualified from “becoming or being” a member of any assembly under article 63 of the Constitution, which dealt with both pre-election and post-election disqualification. The amount outstanding against the sugar mill had, meanwhile, added up to Rs1.03 billion.
Justice Moosa K. Leghari of the Sindh High Court, who constituted the election tribunal, issued notice to MPA Irfan Shah for Jan 27.
Advocates K. M. Nadeem, Muhammad Mustafa Hussain and Rizwan Nadeem represented the petitioners on both the petitions.