ISLAMABAD: Over 100 cases against the acceptance or rejection of nomination papers of national and provincial assembly candidates are still pending with courts, posing a potential threat to the conduct of July 25 elections on time.

With polling day about a week ahead, a senior official of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) revealed that as many as 108 cases — with 81 of them in Sindh alone — were pending with high courts, forcing the commission to withhold printing of ballot papers for a large number of constituencies in Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan.

The ECP finds itself in a quandary and is set to miss the target of completing printing of ballot papers as per its plan and transport the same to the districts concerned and down to the polling stations by July 24.

Over a dozen cases are pending with the Larkana bench, with the next date of hearing in a case fixed for July 24 — a day before polling day. The next date of hearing in most of the other cases pending with the bench is between July 17 and July 19.

ECP finds itself in a quandary and is set to miss the target of completing printing of ballot papers as per its plan

These include former Sindh minister Nisar Ahmad Khoro’s appeal against rejection of his nomination papers by the appellate tribunal for allegedly declaring two wives instead of three as his dependents and concealing assets.

The next date of hearing in his case is July 19. Mr Khoro was awarded a ticket by the PPP for contesting elections from PS-11 (Larkana).

As many as 14 cases are pending before the Sukkur bench which include an appeal of Manzoor Hussain Wassan of PPP against the decision of the appellate tribunal to reject his nomination papers from PS-27 (Khairpur) for allegedly concealing his assets in Dubai. The next date of hearing is July 18.

As many as 37 cases pertaining to acceptance or rejection of nomination papers of candidates are pending with the Karachi bench of the Sindh High Court.

There are several cases where the next date of hearing is yet to be determined, casting doubts if these would be taken up before it is too late.

In Punjab as many as 22 cases involving rejection of nomination papers by returning officers or appellate tribunal are pending.

These include appeals by Syed Fida Hussain (NA-115, Jhang), Mian Muhammad Munir (NA-126, Lahore) and Zaib Issan (NA-131, Lahore).

In Balochistan, the number of such cases is five while no such petition is pending with the High Court in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

President of Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat) Ahmad Bilal Mehboob when asked to comment on the threat of polls being delayed said that in India, which inherited the same electoral and parliamentary practices from Westminster as Pakistan, did not have a system of appeals against the decision of the returning officer on the acceptance or rejection of the candidate’s nomination papers except after the election through an election petition.

No appellate tribunals are provided for in Indian law to deal with the appeals regarding nomination papers.

Even the superior courts in India normally do not entertain an appeal regarding the electoral system once the election programme is announced by the election commission.

He said that the Election Commission in India was given the space and freedom to conduct the election as it was entrusted with the responsibility of holding free and fair election.

“We, in Pakistan, therefore, are much more generous to our candidates as we have a more elaborate system of addressing grievances of candidates not only through the appellate tribunals but also in superior courts.

“This is despite the fact that our electoral laws do not provide for an appeal beyond the Appellate Tribunals. This generosity sometimes places extra burden on the already over-taxed electoral and legal institutions of the country as very short time is available to adjudicate on decisions regarding nomination papers before the ballot papers are printed.

“May be there is a case for learning from Indian experience in this context,” he remarked.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2018