• Wants court to restrain Sanjrani from acting as chairman
• Seeks decree against rejection of seven votes
• Chief Justice Minallah to take up petition tomorrow

ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on Monday filed a petition before the Islamabad High Court (IHC), challenging the result of the Senate chairman election which he lost to Sadiq Sanjrani due to rejection of seven votes.

He sought multiple relief from the court which included declaring the victory and subsequent notification of Mr Sanjrani as Senate chairman void ab initio, suspending the said notification and restraining him from acting as Senate chairman. The petition also sought the court’s decree against rejection of seven votes.

The petition cited Mr Sanjrani, presiding officer for Senate election Syed Muzzafar Hussain Shah and secretaries law, parliamentary affairs and Senate Secretariat as respondents.

Mr Gilani’s counsel, Senator Farooq H. Naek, and Javed Iqbal Wains filed the petition before the IHC.

Chief Justice Athar Minallah will take up the petition on Wednesday (tomorrow).

According to the petition, “after the Senate election the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) combined had the greatest numerical strength in the Senate viz 51 members as opposed to the government alliances of 47 members” and Gilani was the joint candidate of the PDM.

The petition highlighted the traditional background, structure and role of the Senate in the parliamentary system of democracy and said the upper house is “intrinsic to ensuring executive accountability and to preserving a balance of power. The upper house complements the working of the lower house in numerous ways”.

It stated that President Dr Arif Alvi on March 11 nominated Shah as presiding officer who was a controversial figure as he was a member of the Grand Democratic Alliance.

The petition pointed out that Mr Sanjrani’s term as Senate chairman ended on March 11, however at midnight on the same date, he appointed additional sergeant-at-arms (BS-18) in the Senate Secretariat with effect from March 9.

It said the Election Day started with controversy, alleging that the government attempted to influence the result of the election and tried to win it by hook or by crook and also referred to the incident of disclosure of secret cameras in the polling both.

It may be mentioned that just ahead of the polling of the election, PPP’s Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar and PML-N’s Dr Musadiq Malik found hidden cameras in the ballot box and within the Senate Hall.

The petition stated that the Senate secretary in an interaction with the polling agents of Mr Gilani namely advocate Naek and Saeed Ghani “confirmed that a vote is valid irrespective of the fact whether the stamp has been affixed on the ballot paper in the name of the candidate or in front of the name of the candidate” adding that “there was a notice fixed in the Senate Hall in front of the Senate secretary who was issuing ballot papers with the help of his staff. The said notice clearly and unequivocally read “ballot papers bear the candidate’s name. Affix the stamp on the ballot paper in the box of the candidate you like.”

It further said the instructions were to “affix the stamp on the ballot paper within the box bearing the name of the candidate of his choice in a secret manner”.

“During the process of counting of votes the presiding officer arbitrarily rejected seven votes casted in the petitioner’s favour on the ground that the stamp was affixed in the name petitioner,” it said, adding that the “the rejected votes clearly evince the voter’s intent to vote for the petitioner and no one else.”

According to the petition, there was a difference of merely six votes between the two candidates and if the seven rejected votes were counted, the petitioner would emerge as the returned candidate. The petition also cited precedents regarding intent of voters and requested the court to overturn the results of the Senate chairman election.

Published in Dawn, March 23rd, 2021