KARACHI: After Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Sindh president Haleem Adil Sheikh, its city president Khurram Sher Zaman on Friday filed a petition before an election tribunal, challenging the victory of Pakistan Peoples Party’s Mirza Ikhtiar Baig from NA-241 in Karachi.

The petitioner submitted that he had contested the Feb 8 general elections as independent candidate from NA-241 (Karachi South-III) since his party had lost its electoral symbol.

Citing the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), provincial election commissioner, returning officer concerned, returned candidate from the subject constituency Mirza Ikhtiar Baig of the PPP and others as respondents, he asked the tribunal to set aside the impugned result/notification and declare him as winner.

He contended that as per Form-45s, obtained by his polling agents from the presiding officers at all the polling stations of the constituency, he had secured 79,530 votes and Mr Baig could manage to get only 20,303 votes.

He alleged that the respondents robbed him of 30,920 votes as his votes were brought down to 48,610 and those of the PPP’s aspirant increased to 32,153 through tampering and forgery, declaring him the winner with total votes of 52,456.

Says PPP’s Ikhtiar Baig lost NA-241 poll as per Form-45s

Notices issued on Haleem’s petition

Earlier, another election tribunal has issued notices to the ECP and other respondents on the election petition of Mr Sheikh impugning the result of NA-238 in the city.

The tribunal headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha of the Sindh High Court also put the federal and provincial law officers on notice for April 19.

It also asked the advocate general (AG) Sindh to appear or depute any additional advocate general to assist the court on various issues, including maintainability of the petition.

The tribunal further issued notices to the ECP and provincial election commissioner as well as AG and deputy attorney general for March 29 on an application filed by the petitioner seeking directive for the election watchdog to produce the record of Forms-45 before the tribunal since the petitioner asserted that the entire controversy revolved around the alleged tampering of Forms-45 by the respondents.

The tribunal in its order said: “The Sindh High Court had directed the Election Commission of Pakistan to determine the grievance of the petitioner which is before this court, apparently the grievance was determined through a short order and a detailed order is yet to be issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan. On the next date of hearing learned counsel for petitioner shall provide copy of detailed order to this court.”

It said the additional advocate general so appointed must remain attached to that petition until its finalization, adding that any documents in Urdu language must also be translated into English before the next hearing.

“Issue pre-admission notices to the respondents for 19.04.2024 at 09:00am to assist this court on the maintainability generally of the petition and in particular in terms of Election Act, 2017 and any superior courts authorities especially in respect of compliance of provisions under Election Act 2017 which can lead to summarily dismissal of the petition by this tribunal under sections 142, 143 and 144 of the aforesaid act”, it added.

In his election petition, Mr Sheikh submitted that he had contested Feb 8 general elections as independent candidate from NA-238 (Karachi East-VI)

Citing the ECP, provincial election commissioner, returning officer, returned candidate from the subject constituency Sadiq Iftikhar and others as respondents, the petitioner asked the tribunal to set aside the impugned result/notification and declare him as returned candidate or order fresh election in the entire constituency.

The lawyer for the petitioner, Ali Tahir, contended that as per the Form-45s, obtained from all polling station of the constituency, his client had secured the highest number of votes (84,049) while around 10,000 votes were polled to MQM-P’s aspirant Mr Iftikhar.

He asserted that the votes of the PTI leader were reduced to 36,885 through tampering and forgery of Forms 45, 47 and 48 while the votes of his rival candidate were increased to 54,385 in the impugned result.

The petitioner maintained that initially, he had filed a petition in the SHC on the subject matter and the court had referred the same to the ECP with the direction to pass a speaking order on the issue after hearing the petitioner, but the election watchdog dismissed the same over jurisdiction issue through a short order.

Published in Dawn, March 23rd, 2024