ISLAMABAD: The Sup­reme Court ordered the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) on Tuesday to complete in three months verification of thumb impressions in Sialkot’s NA-110 seat which had been won by Defence Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif in the 2013 election.

“We are asking for a Nadra report for our own satisfaction so that substantive evidence could be available before us to decide the matter,” observed Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali who heads a three-judge bench which has taken up an application of PTI candidate Usman Dar challenging the order of an election tribunal rejecting his election petition on ground of non-prosecution.

The court also ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan to provide counterfoils and thumb impressions so that Nadra could complete the verification exercise in three months and the court, after perusal of the report, could issue a final order on the matter.

The cost of the exercise would be borne by the petitioner (Usman Dar), the court ordered.

“We are finding a way out to get answers to the allegations of rigging levelled by the other party,” Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed said when Advocate Rashdeen Kasuri, representing Khawaja Asif, opposed the idea of directing Nadra to conduct the verification of thumb impressions.

Everything would be clear if fake or bogus votes had been cast in the constituency, the judge observed.

NA-110 is among the four constituencies where the PTI leadership had alleged massive rigging in the 2013 election and filed election petitions seeking re-elections. The other seats are NA-125 and NA-122 in Lahore and NA-154 in Lodhran. The re-election in the later two constituencies has already been held.

Khawaja Asif bagged 92,484 votes and Usman Dar 71,573 in the 2013 general election.

During the proceedings, the chief justice regretted that the tribunal had decided the election dispute without realising the fact that allegations of rigging and bogus voting had been levelled during the election process.

Dr Babar Awan, representing Usman Dar, said the tribunal had dismissed the election petition though the statements of five witnesses had already been recorded while the petitioner had to rush to the United States in connection with the treatment of his mother at the time of cross-examination of witnesses.

Advocate Kasuri argued that the losing party had produced their witnesses but failed to prove what it called massive manipulation of the election.

Meanwhile, the same bench adjourned till Jan 26 an appeal filed by PML-N’s Khawaja Saad Rafique for setting aside the May 4, 2015, order of an election tribunal cancelling his election from NA-125 (Lahore), but with a warning that this would be the last adjournment after which the court would proceed to decide the matter.

The railways minister was present in the court along with his counsel Khawaja Haris, but Advocate Ahmed Awais, representing Hamid Khan, did not turn up citing indisposition.

“We have already granted adjournments in this matter twice or thrice despite the fact that we have to constitute a special bench to hear the matter,” the chief justice observed.

Hamid Khan said his counsel was not well and assured the court that he would surely be available at the next hearing.

Khawaja Haris said the case should be decided as early as possible and that any date fixed should be the last opportunity.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2016