KARACHI, May 23: The Sindh High Court on Thursday stayed the issuance of a notification of Agha Siraj Durrani of the Pakistan Peoples Party as a winning candidate from a Sindh Assembly seat in Shikarpur till further orders.

A division bench, headed by Justice Faisal Arab, was seized with the constitutional petition of Zulfiqar Ali Kumario, a rival candidate from the constituency (PS-19) who lost the election to the PPP candidate, against rigging in the polls.

Mr Kumario stated that the workers and supporters of the respondent PPP candidate threatened his voters and polling agents who were not allowed to enter the polling stations.

He alleged that the ballot boxes containing votes in his favour were destroyed by the rival candidate’s workers and supporters.

He said that the turnout in the constituency was 56.85 per cent, as 73,586 out of the total 129,438 registered votes were cast.

The defeated candidate submitted that he later lodged a complaint with the Election Commission of Pakistan against rigging but in vain as the commission did not take any action on his application.

He prayed to the court to direct the ECP to decide his application within a week.

He also prayed to the court to restrain the commission in the meantime from issuing the notification of the winning candidate.

The court stayed the issuance of the notification and also directed the ECP to decide the matter of petitioner within a week.

The same bench directed the ECP to decide the application of Illahi Bukhsh Soomro against massive rigging in his constituency (NA-208).

Petitioner Soomro had lost the National Assembly seat to PPP’s Ijaz Jakhrani.

Notice to PPP candidateA division bench, headed by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, issued a notice to Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, his son and others in a petition seeking action against them for torching the houses of their rival candidate’s supporters.

Petitioner Kareem Dad, a resident of Kareem Dad Banglani Village, Jacobabad, submitted that he along with his Banglani tribe supported the candidate of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazal) to a provincial assembly seat that was won by Mir Bijarani.

He alleged that his two sons — three-year-old Nauman and three-month-old Afaq — were burnt to death when the PPP candidate along with men from his tribe and policemen raided their village and torched several houses.

The petitioner stated that the attacker also took away valuables, cash and gold from their houses.

He impleaded the home secretary, the inspector general of police, the DIG of Larkana, the SSPs and the deputy commissioners of Kandhkot and Kashmore, Mir Bijarani and others as respondents.

The petitioner prayed to the court to direct the police to register an FIR against the PPP candidate and ask him and other respondents to pay compensation of damages caused by them to the petitioner.

The bench issued notices to the prosecutor general and assistant prosecutor general and adjourned the hearing to May 30.