HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad circuit bench of the Sindh High Court on Thursday restrained Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) from announcing final result of PS-82 Jamshoro-III contest till Aug 6.

The court passed the order on a constitutional petition filed by disgruntled leader of Pakistan Peoples Party Dr Sikandar Shoro who contested PS-82 on July 25 as an independent candidate and lost to PPP’s ticket-holder Malik Asad Sikandar by a thin margin.

Advocate Farogh Naseem, who represented Dr Shoro, said the conduct of election in PS-82 constituency was the worst example of pre- and post-poll rigging, irregularities, illegalities and complete disregard of law by the very officers who had been entrusted the job of conducting election in a fair and impartial manner.

It was evident from the fact that the petitioner’s polling agents were forcibly expelled from most of the polling stations at the time of counting of votes and that copies of Form 45 of only four polling stations issued to him carried signatures of polling agents of candidates, he said.

He said the petitioner’s application for vote recount submitted to the returning officer (RO) concerned on July 26 was rejected on July 28 by misinterpreting section 95 of Elections Act 2017.

Quoting section 90(12) of Election Act, he said that since the said provisions were not complied with by presiding officers, the election and its result could not be construed as fair and just in the light of Article 218(3) of the Constitution.

The counsel said that Forms 45 of four polling stations bore signatures of polling agents while the rest of 150 forms did not have any signature or thumb impression.

He said that when counting began after 6pm, the petitioner’s opponent and his cronies created a hostile environment by resorting to firing and beating his peaceful supporters, leading to disruption and delay in vote counting.

He said that a female presiding officer left polling station-63 in Saeedabad Chawro during the course of vote counting and Form 45 of that polling station was not handed over to the petitioner’s polling agent. Polling staff Saleh Mohammad and Ghulam Akbar Abro were caught red-handed by soldiers while stamping ballot papers at different polling stations, he said.

He said the two offenders were handed over to police and despite the petitioner’s complaint to district returning officer (DRO) submitted on July 28 no action was taken against them by the DRO.

The counsel said that former MPA Faqir Dad Khoso, a close aide of Malik Asad, attacked seven polling stations located near the petitioner’s residence and police kept the petitioner and his family members in illegal detention at his house between 9pm on July 25 to 6am on July 26.

He requested the court to declare illegal RO’s July 28 order and ECP’s July 29 order and call for recounting of votes in the presence of an SHC officer.

The court observed that request made by the petitioner for recount of ballot papers was reasonable and the RO should not have rejected his application for vote recount.

The court therefore restrained the respondents from notifying election results of PS-82 till Aug 6, when it would hear the petition, and issued notices to deputy attorney general and additional advocate general of Sindh in this connection.

SHC seeks respondents’ comments on Fehmida Mirza’s plea

The same bench directed lawyers for the returning officer of NA-230 Badin-II to submit his comments on a constitutional petition filed by Dr Fehmida Mirza, who has unofficially been declared winner of the seat.

Justice Rajput pointed out to petitioner’s counsel Advocate Javed Mir that he did not cite the RO and provincial government as respondents in the petition. The judge directed him to file the amended title of the petition.

Advocate Parkash Kumar filed his power of attorney on behalf of respondent Rasool Bux Chandio, who has lost to Dr Mirza, and sought time to file a counter-affidavit on Friday (today).

Fazal Hussain Jamali appeared on behalf of the deputy attorney general (DAG) to file the latter’s comment while Liaquat Sangrasi represented the RO.

The bench adjourned the case to 10.30am on Friday.

Earlier, AAG Allah Bachayo Soomro argued that the petitioner did not cite the RO as necessary party in the case and the DRO who was impleaded as respondent did not have his direct role in the recounting of votes. He said that the DRO had just a supervisory role.

The AAG submitted in court that the petition was not maintainable. He stated that she herself had also applied for recounting which was ordered by the RO on her and the respondent candidate’s applications.

Justice Rajput told the petitioner’s counsel that the July 30 letter which was impugned by him only talked about facilitation and it did not carry directive. He also pointed out that the petitioner did not submit with her petition the RO’s order for recounting.

Advocate Mir replied that he had discussed it in the petition. He stated that he had also pointed out to the RO that when the bags of ballot papers were opened, petitioner’s votes were found torn or tampered with.

The bench told him that this point of tampering of ballots could not be decided by the court through constitutional petition. The court asked the AAG to file comment of the provincial government on Friday.

Dr Mirza has impugned the July 30 letter of ECP’s deputy director asking the RO to continue recounting and restraining him from announcing the consolidated result. She has prayed to court to order suspension of the operation of the letter.

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2018