KARACHI: The Election Tribunal in Karachi on Friday declared the election in PS-114, a provincial assembly seat won by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz candidate Irfanullah Marwat, void.

Headed by former judge of the Sindh High Court Dr Zafar Ahmed Khan Sherwani, the tribunal ruled that the election in the constituency was required to be declared void as a whole as “the result of the elections has been materially affected within the ambit of Section 70(b) of the Peoples Representative Act”.

The order came on the election petition of Abdul Rauf Siddiqui, a Muttahida Qaumi Movement candidate who challenged the victory of Mr Marwat who was alleged to have committed massive rigging in the polling.

Mr Siddiqui, represented by Barrister Dr Farogh Naseem, had filed the election petition stating that rigging on the polling day was rampant which was exacerbated by the law and order situation created by the rival candidate and his supporters who had virtually sabotaged the entire electoral process.

He alleged that the rival candidate and his cohorts blatantly opened fire, not only in the air but also on the petitioner. The PML-N candidate and his supporters harassed the voters and the election staff, he said.

Mr Siddiqui said that Mr Marwat and his workers with the connivance of the area police intimidated and threatened his voters by firing and throwing bombs and crackers.

To prove his allegation, the petitioner examined himself and produced a DVD in respect of the incident of firing on him outside the building housing six polling stations from No 85 to 90 at Chanesar village, which was also played during the proceedings before the tribunal.

It was alleged in the petition that Mr Marwat and his supporters went ahead to stamp ballot papers in their favour and spoiled those already stamped in favour of the petitioner.

The MQM leader said the rival PML-N candidate was declared successful in a mala fide manner by the ECP and the returning officer, compelling him to move the election tribunal against the victory.

Rauf Siddiqui

The tribunal ordered audit of counterfoils and voters’ lists for the entire constituency by the National Database and Registration Authority that later submitted its report.

He said the Nadra report confirmed that out of total 92,731 votes, 29,255 were definitely forged and 63,469 could not be verified because of bad quality of thumbprints.

He said that Nadra was able to verify thumbprints of 29,255 votes, which failed the authentication process. A further probe into the matter, at least for 63,469 votes, had to be undertaken in keeping with the spirit of Section 33 of the 1976 Act and the Aug 3 order of the tribunal, he said.

Dr Nasim contended that the Nadra report reflected that out of 92,731 counterfoils of the used ballot papers in respect of 92 polling stations only 29,262 thumb impressions could be processed out of which only 10,007 thumb impressions were successfully authenticated, meaning thereby 19,255 counterfoils were found tainted which was prima facie proof that this had materially affected the result of the election.

The counsel for PML-N candidate, Advocate Khalid Nawaz Marwat, however, contended that the Nadra report had no consequence as admittedly the magnetized ink that was required to be used as proposed by Nadra to the Election Commission of Pakistan was not used and therefore the report had no legal value.

He argued that the lead of more than 6,000 votes was such that even if a few votes were declared invalid the election as whole could not be declared void.

The tribunal head concluded in the judgement: “I have considered the above arguments in the light of record and the case law as relied upon by the learned counsel for the petitioner and reached to the conclusion that since the petitioner has proved the prevalence of extensive corrupt and illegal practices at the election at the 6 polling stations i.e. S. No 85 to 90 in the constituency where 6,867 votes were polled and the report of Nadra shows that 3,270 counterfoils of the used ballots papers of all the 92 polling stations including 74 of these six polling stations were such on which thumb impressions failed authentication and since the retuned candidate’s margin of lead is only 6,825 votes is less much than the total of these two (votes polled over these six polling stations and the invalid votes in respect of 3,270 counterfoils that failed authentication), therefore as per ratio laid down in Annda Bachar, Supra, the result of the election has been materially affected within the ambit of Section 70 (B) of the Act, consequently, the election in the constituency is required to be decred as a whole void.”

The tribunal allowed the petition of the Muttahida leader against the victory of Mr Marwat with costs.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2014