ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court will on Monday (today) commence hearing of an appeal filed by Qasim Khan Suri who lost the post of deputy speaker of the National Assembly after he was recently unseated by an election tribunal.

Headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial, a three-judge bench, also comprising Justice Faisal Arab and Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan, will take up the appeal in which the mover has questioned the jurisdiction of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to unseat him when it was not constituted properly since the five-member commission was short of two members.

On Sept 27, the Election Tribunal, Quetta, had declared the election of Qasim Suri, a member of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf from Balochistan, as void and ordered re-election in NA-265 (Quetta-II).

Despite his unseating by election tribunal, National Assembly’s website continues to show him as the deputy speaker

Lashkari Raisani had challenged the election of Mr Suri, alleging rigging.

On Wednesday, the National Assembly session, which was scheduled to continue till Friday (Oct 4), was prorogued abruptly within minutes of its commencement. Members of the opposition alleged that the move was aimed at avoiding election to the vacant office of the deputy speaker.

The NA prorogation came hours after the ECP issued a notification of Mr Suri’s unseating.

Mr Suri’s appeal drafted by senior counsel Naeem Bokhari argued before the Supreme Court that the ECP did not have the constitutional composition to de-notify a returned candidate.

It contended that the appellant hails from a low-income middle class family whereas his opponent Lashkari Raisani is immensely rich, well connected and extremely influential as he is the brother of former chief minister of Balochistan Aslam Raisani. Therefore, it is inconceivable that the appellant could have connived with the polling staff on duty in the NA-265 constituency for his success as held by the tribunal.

The conclusion by the election tribunal that there was a meagre difference in the votes between the rival candidates is contrary to the record since a difference of 5,585 votes is not meagre, the appeal argued, alleging that such conclusion reflects bias on the part of the tribunal.

Moreover, there is no detection of huge quantity of bogus votes by the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra). Besides, seeking support of a 2016 Supreme Court judgement in this matter was incorrect and inappropriate since it was clearly distinguishable from the case at hand, the appeal contended.

It regretted that neither contravention of the Elections Act, 2017, nor any corrupt or illegal practice was ever proved during the proceedings before the tribunal. Thus, the conclusion by the tribunal is completely unsustainable.

The appeal emphasised that any failure on the part of Nadra or the ECP cannot remotely be attributed to the appellant, adding that the tribunal in its verdict has failed to apply or even understand the conclusion by Nadra which suggested that the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) found 49,042 fingerprints of sufficient quality and a total of zero fingerprints failed authentication.

This means someone else voted against CNIC number mentioned on the used counterfoil of the ballot papers, stated Nadra report. But the appeal contended that this reflected some typographical mistake as when the report already explained that zero fingerprints failed authentication, the report should have stated that ‘no one else’ voted against CNIC instead of saying ‘someone else.’

It is also clear that there was no evidence whatsoever on record to suggest as to which contesting candidate or candidates secured the 52,756 votes, whose used counterfoils AFIS found to be of insufficient quality for the purposes of automated machine.

Moreover, the ECP’s failure to provide requisite ink for deciphering fingerprints cannot be attributed to the appellant or his success in the elections, the appeal argued, adding that the absence of record of 15 polling stations also cannot be attributed to the appellant nor can his success be impaired by their absence.

Similarly, the failure of Nadra because of non-dispatch of counterfoils of 17 polling stations could easily be rectified by directing their dispatch. Therefore, the conclusion by the tribunal in this regard was entirely conjectural and unsustainable, the appeal said.

Interestingly, despite unseating of Qasim Suri by the ECP, the National Assembly’s website still shows him as the NA deputy speaker along with his photograph.

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2019