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ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan upheld on Monday the previously declared Senate poll results for seven general seats from Balochistan, prompting a furious protest by the Pakistan Muslim League-N which threatened to take the matter to the Supreme Court.
Balochistan Election Commissioner Abdul Jabbar Jamali, who was also returning officer in the Senate elections, made the announcement in the presence of members and lawyers representing the Pakistan People’s Party, Awami National Party and the PML-N.
The PML-N’s lawyer, Senator Syed Zafar Ali Shah, ANP Senators Haji Mohammad Adeel and Zahid Khan, and a former deputy attorney general, Shah Khawar of the PPP, were present in the Election Commission of Pakistan office where they were asked to assemble for a recount.
The angry PML-N leaders later held a news conference at Punjab House, alleging that the provincial election commissioner had backtracked from his own commitment by upholding the previous decision without holding a recount.
The PML-N’s Balochistan president Sanaullah Zehri, MNA Abdul Qadir Baloch and Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry said that while withholding the results for seven general seats late on Friday night, Mr Jamali had announced that final results would be declared after recounting the votes in Islamabad.
The Pakistan Muslim League-N leaders said they would submit an appeal against what they called “biased decision” to the chief election commissioner, adding that they would file a petition in the Supreme Court if they didn’t get “any justice”.
They said an MPA had wrongly put a tick mark on the name of a candidate instead of the given box. The returning officer had rejected the vote cast in favour of a PML-N candidate, but accepted a similar one for a PPP candidate, they alleged. “Had this vote been counted, the PML-N candidate would have won the election.”
The Pakistan Muslim League-N leaders alleged that state machinery had been used to rig the Senate elections and Rs650 million spent on the purchase of votes.
Sardar Fateh Muhammad Hasni, Muhammad Yousaf and Nawabzada Saifullah Magsi of the PPP, Mir Israrullah Zehri of the Balochistan National Party-Awami, Saeedul Hasan Mandokhel of the PML-Q, Daud Khan Achakzai of the Awami National Party and Hafiz Hamdullah Saboor of the JUI-F had been declared winners in the Senate elections held on Friday.
The Pakistan Muslim League-N had refused to accept the results, alleging that one of the votes polled in favour of its candidate had wrongfully been excluded from the counting by the returning officer.
After having failed to resolve the dispute, the Balochistan election commissioner had announced that a recount would be held in Islamabad on Monday.
Talking to Dawn, Zafar Ali Shah said PML-N candidate Syed Nawab Shah had obtained more than the seven votes required to win a general seat, but he had intentionally been deprived of one vote. In reply to a question, he said that because of the complicated process it would be difficult for him to say who would lose the seat if the PML-N candidate was declared a winner.
The Awami National Party’s Zahid Khan said his party was worried about the dispute because its candidate Daud Khan Achakzai was at number six on the list.
He said it was a dispute between the PPP and the PML-N because PPP’s Muhammad Yousuf was at number seven according to the votes polled in the Balochistan Assembly.
The Awami National Party leader hit back at allegations by the PML-N, contending that under the law, the provincial election commissioner could not hold another recount after already having done it on the polling day.
He said if the PML-N had any objection, it could challenge it at appropriate legal forums.
