KARACHI, Oct 2: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the Election Commission of Pakistan and others on a constitutional petition of Irfanullah Marwat, a member of the provincial assembly belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), against the verification of thumb impression of voters on ballots in the PS-114 constituency.

The seat was bagged by Mr Marwat in the general elections.Mr Marwat, represented by Advocate Faisal Kamal, moved the SHC after he was aggrieved by an order of the election tribunal, headed by former judge Zafar Ahmed Khan Sherwani, in an election petition filed against him by Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Abdur Rauf Siddiqui.

The election tribunal had on Aug 3 directed the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) to verify the thumb impressions of voters of certain polling stations in the constituency on the plea of Mr Siddiqui, who was a rival candidate.

The PML-N lawmaker stated that the respondent election tribunal passed the order of verification of thumb impressions without taking into consideration the fact that his application seeking sealing of entire record of the constituency and it submission to the SHC Nazir was pending disposal.

He prayed to the court to set aside the tribunal order and restrain Nadra from verification of thumb impressions of votes.

On Wednesday, a division bench headed by Justice Faisal Arab put the ECP, Nadra and the respondent Muttahida leader on notice and adjourned the hearing to a date to be later fixed by the court’s office.

Jail trial case

Another division bench of the SHC, headed by Justice Ghulam Sarwar Korai, issued notice to the home secretary, the jail superintendent and the special secretary for prisons in a petition challenging the trial of a suspected targeted killer inside the Central Prison.

Petitioner Shafiquddin submitted that his son, Mohammad Jahangir, was being tried in two separate murder cases in as many courts of the additional district and sessions judges in district east.

He said that the trial of his son in the two cases was in the final stage but the respondent authorities transferred the trial court proceedings inside the jail on April 11.

The petitioner said that the shifting of proceedings inside the jail would lead to difficulties for the family members of the accused person as they would be deprived of meeting him on the date of hearings.

He prayed to the court to direct the respondent authorities to conduct the trial in open enabling the parents and family members of the accused person to see him on the date of hearings.

The jail superintendent in his comments said that the accused person was involved in targeted killing cases and the case had been notified for trial inside the jail to avoid any untoward incident during the course of production outside the prison.

Sheep importer’s plea

A division bench headed by Justice Nadeem Akhtar suspended the operation of a letter of animal husbandry commissioner, seeking blacklisting of the private company that had imported Australian sheep in 2012.

Over 20,000 sheep were culled by the provincial livestock and fisheries department after they claimed that some tests had found them infected and unfit for human consumption.

The bench was seized with the petition of the importer, Tariq Mehmood Butt, who had purchased the consignment of Australian sheep after it was refused by its importer in Bahrain.

The petitioner submitted that he was exonerated from the charge of importing infected sheep following an inquiry conducted by the Federal Investigation Agency.

He stated that the commissioner of the animal husbandry wrote a letter to the secretary of the livestock asking him to blacklist his firm.

He prayed to the court to restrain the respondents from blacklisting his firm.

The bench suspended the operation of the impugned letter and issued notice to the livestock secretary, animal husbandry commissioner and commerce secretary.

The hearing of the case was adjourned to a date in office.