HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad election tribunal headed by Judge Ashfaq Baloch on Friday reserved its order till Dec 26 on an application filed by Pakistan Peoples Party-Parliamentarians (PPP-P) president Makhdoom Amin Fahim, challenging his rival’s election petition on the ground that it was ‘defective’ and ‘not maintainable’.

The tribunal after hearing arguments of both sides and reserved its order.

In his petition, Abdul Razaq Memon aka Ghafoor Memon has challenged the election of Makhdoom Amin Fahim on the National Assembly seat NA-218.

During the previous hearing, the election tribunal had asked Mr Fahim to appear before it for cross-examination. His counsel, Qurban Bhutto, filed an application arguing that Mr Memon’s petition was defective and liable to be dismissed. He said that the proper procedure required for the filing of an election petition was not followed by the petitioner. He added that the documents attached to the petition were not verified as per the requirement. He noted that 30 cases pertaining to such matters had been decided by the tribunal on this ground alone.

He said that the contents of the petition had to be supported by affidavits as per the Civil Procedure Code (CPC). He said that the documents also did not carry the petitioner’s signature which clearly indicated that the petition was defective. He quoted the verdict reported in the Supreme Court Monthly Review (page 34) which was authored by then chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, ruling that “if petition is defective same could be dismissed at any stage of the case”.

Mr Memon’s counsel, Mahmood Alam Abbasi, argued that the documents were verified and did contain the signature of the petitioner’s attorney which was sufficient. He pleaded that the documents verified on oath were equivalent to an affidavit. He cited an apex court ruling in this regard which pertained to a verdict given in 2010.

He said that the then CJP, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, had remanded a petition back to an election tribunal in an identical matter in which documents didn’t bear the signature of a petitioner.

Mr Memon’s counsel had filed a separate application, seeking suspension of Mr Fahim’s membership of the National Assembly. But he didn’t press the application as it required issuance of a show-cause notice to respondents and such a notice was not there.

Mr Fahim’s counsel asserted that a proper procedure was laid down for allowing such applications and it also required issuance of a show-cause notice to the respondent. But, he said, he was attending court hearings regularly and no show-cause notice had been issued to him in this regard.

Abdul Razzaq aka Ghafoor Memon was a Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) candidate for NA-218 Matiari against Makhdoom Amin Fahim but lost to him by about 25,500 votes. He challenged the results on the ground of bogus voting in the constituency. A detailed Nadra (National Database and Registration Authority) report was placed on record in the tribunal in support of his claim.

Published in Dawn December 21th , 2014