PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Tuesday reserved judgment in a case challenging the election tribunal’s decision on the election of former provincial chief minister Ameer Haider Hoti as MNA in the May 11, 2013 general elections.

Earlier, Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Malik Manzoor heard arguments of petitioner Nasir Khan and Mr Hoti’s lawyer Waqar Ahmad.

The petitioner, who had lost election to the former chief minister by a margin of over 2,000 votes, has challenged the rejection of his two applications by the election tribunal in Peshawar during pendency of his petition, which challenged Mr Hoti’s election as MNA through ‘bogus polling.’

In one of the applications, the petitioner had requested the tribunal to order Nadra to verify thumb impressions of all those in his constituency, NA-9, Mardan I, who cast vote during the elections.

The tribunal had decided that the matter would be decided during final arguments in the election petition.

In the second application, the petitioner had requested the tribunal to summon certain witnesses, who he claimed were important to establish that Mr Hoti owned 10 kanals of land in Naran area of Mansehra district but didn’t show that in his nomination papers.

The tribunal rejected the request prompting the petitioner to file the petition with the high court.

Mr Hoti’s lawyer Waqar Ahmad questioned the maintainability of the petition saying under the Constitution, it was the domain of the election tribunal to decide the said applications.

He cited several judgments of the superior courts and said an interlocutory order of the election tribunal could not be challenged before the high court and that only appeal could be field against its final order.

The lawyer said the election tribunal could only order verification of thumb impressions if the petitioner justified it to the presiding officer by producing evidence substantiating his request.

He asked how around 0.15 million votes could be verified if the petitioner didn’t provide any justification for the exercise.

The bench also reserved judgment in another case challenging the election tribunal’s decision on the election of Senator Hilalur Rehman’s rival in the May 2013 elections.

Aamir Jawed, lawyer for Senator Hilalur Rehman, said losing candidate Munir Orakzai had challenged the petitioner’s election as the senator during the Senate polls conducted in 2012 before an election tribunal.

He said under Section 36(3) of the Senate Elections Act, it was mandatory that every election petition and annexure attached to it should be signed by the petitioner as well as properly verified. The lawyer said Mr Orakzai had not put his signature on one of the pages of the election petition and therefore, the petition could not be heard for that reason on technical grounds, but when the said point was raised by them, the tribunal turned it down.

Barrister Mudassir Amir, lawyer for Mr Orakzai, and contended that the verification of the election petition carried the signature of petitioner on each of the pages.

He stated that Mr Orakzai had challenged election of Senator Hilalur Rehman on the ground that he had not attained 35 years of age, which was a requirement under the Constitution.

Moreover, the bench also reserved its order in another petition filed by a losing candidate, Mohammad Bashir Khan, challenging the non-summoning of certain witnesses by the election tribunal presently hearing an election petition filed by him against election of MNA, Sahibzada Yaqoob Khan, from NA-34 Lower Dir constituency.

Khushdil Khan, lawyer for the petitioner, said Afghan refugees had cast votes in the said constituency in large number.

He said an application was filed before the election tribunal requesting for summoning some presiding officer so as to verify the casting of votes by the Afghan nationals. However, he added that the said application was rejected by the tribunal.

Lawyer for the petitioner Aamir Jawed opposed the plea saying neither before the polling nor during the polling process, the petitioner had raised any objection about the inclusion of names of Afghan nationals in the voters list.