LAHORE, April 28: As many as 71 petitions are pending with election tribunals of the Lahore High Court in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan and Bahawalpur. According to the official record, 114 petitions were filed with the principal seat and the three benches and 43 disposed of.

The elections of the National Assembly and the Punjab legislature were held on Oct 10, 2002. All except three election petitions were filed between October and December 2002.

However, Lahore High Court's annual report for the year 2003 presents a different data. This report says that six election petitions were pending on Dec 31, 2002. With 43 petitions instituted afresh during the year 2003, the total number reached 49. As many as 39 were disposed of during the previous year and the number of the petitions pending on the last day of 2003 was only 10.

The annual report is otherwise considered as a bold step as it exposes the performance of the superior and subordinate judiciary in the Punjab for the public. Yet, its various tables make a complex reading and the variance of its contents with the official record, poses an anomaly.

The report also carries glaring grammatical and punctuation mistakes. Coupled with poor proof-reading, the document is hardly presentable. The Lahore High Court's history, as derived from the Punjab archives, is also very sketchy.

As for the election petitions, 15 of them have recently been transferred to other tribunals after the retirement of Justice Pervez Ahmad. As a result, eight election tribunals are now functioning in the Punjab.

The three election petitions which, according to official record, were submitted in 2003 included Maulana Mohammad Yusuf vs Saeed Akbar Khan Niwani (PP-47, Bhakkar), Mohammad Saifullah vs Rashid Akbar Khan Niwani (NA-74, Bhakkar) and Rana Mohammad Hayat vs Sardar Mohammad Asif Nakai (NA-142, Kasur).

Other petitions are: Chaudhry Mohammad Saboor Kisana vs Mohammad Ajmal Cheema (PP-121, Sialkot), Sheikh Qaisar Ahmad vs Mohammad Tahir Shah (NA-86, Jhang), Syed Mohammad Akbar Shah vs Bilal Ahmad Virk (NA-136, Sheikhupura), Zulfiqar Ali Ghumman and Mohammad Saeed vs Tahir Akhtar Malik (PP-124, Sialkot), Hamza vs Amjad Ali Warraich (NA-92) and Khalid Ahmad Khan Kharal vs Riaz Khan Fatiana (NA-94), both from Toba Tek Singh, Ghulam Mohammad Lali vs Imtiaz Ahmad Lali (PP-80, Jhang), Mohammad Shabbir Awan vs Malik Mohammad Saifullah Tiwana (NA-70, Khushab), Haji Liaqat Ali vs Punjab Assembly speaker Chaudhry Mohammad Afzal Sahi (PP-51, Faisalabad), Rai Usman Khan vs Rai Rab Nawaz Khan (PP-56, Faisalabad), Sheikh Alauddin vs Shahid Qayyum (PP-181, Kasur), Syed Mohammad Nazir Sultan vs Saima Akhtar Bharwana (NA-90, Jhang), Mohammad Arqam Khan vs Punjab minister Chaudhry Mohammad Iqbal (PP-98, Gujranwala) and Khalid Pervez vs Amanat Ali Virk (PP-101, Gujranwala).

The following election petitions are also pending: Mohammad Nasir Cheema vs Mazhar Javed (PP-97, Gujranwala), Rana Shaukat Mahmood and Malik Javed Awan vs Rana Mohammad Tajammal Husain (PP-157, Lahore), Syed Raz Ali Gilani vs Iftikhar Husain Chachar (PP-188, Okara), Karam Elahi vs Malik Saleh Mohammad (PP-40, Khushab), Malik Umar Aslam vs Sumera Malik (NA-69, Khushab), Mohammad Akhtar Ghumman vs Nazir Ahmad Jat (NA-167, Vehari), Mian Noor Mohammad Chela vs Faisal Hayat Jubbana (PP-82, Jhang), Chaudhry Zafar Iqbal vs Mushtaq Ahmad Kiyani (PP-5, Rawalpindi), Nawab Ghazanfar Ali Gul vs Mohammad Arshad Bora (NA-101, Gujrat), Nawabzada Muzaffar Ali vs Chaudhry Khalid Asghar Ghural (PP-108, Gujrat) and Rana Mohammad Qasim Noon vs Dewan Jafar Husain Bokhari (NA-153, Multan).

The election petitions of Hafeezullah Ishaq vs Mohammad Farhan Latif (NA-93, Toba Tek Singh) and Syed Javed Ali Shah vs Asad Murtaza (NA-152, Multan) are also pending. Similarly, another 21 election petitions disputing the return of members of the Punjab Assembly are also pending.