ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday postponed for an indefinite period the by-election in NA-75 – a seat in Daska Tehsil of Sialkot city – which was scheduled to be held on April 10.
Suspecting irregularities, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in February, while hearing the request of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) hopeful Nosheen Iftikhar, ordered re-election in the entire constituency – a decision challenged in the apex court by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate Ali Asjad Malhi.
“The ECP has no jurisdiction to pass a short order as this jurisdiction vests only with the Supreme Court, which already held in the 1993 Nawaz Sharif versus President of Pakistan [Ghulam Ishaq Khan] and the 1998 Benazir Bhutto versus President of Pakistan cases that merely because several illegalities had taken place in certain polling stations, no justification existed in annulling elections of all polling stations,” the petition had said.
In a short order, a three-judge bench – headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial and consisting of Justice Sajjad Ali Shah and Justice Yahya Afridi – said it needed more time to decide the case. “The court will hear the arguments of both sides before issuing a final judgment.”
During the hearing, Advocate Salman Akram Raja, the counsel for the PML-N, informed the court that of the 76 polling stations in Daska, complaints had been received from 34 of those stations.
He stressed that 20 presiding officers (PO) had also been made to “disappear”.
“The question is who created these problems on the day of polling and why. Was one candidate strong so the other one had these actions taken?” Justice Bandial asked, referring to the fact that the apex court had previously been informed that polling at 10 stations had been suspended for an extended amount of time.
Advocate Raja argued that PML-N candidate Iftikhar’s father had been elected in the constituency five times and her family is influential in the area.
“Nosheen Iftikhar got 46,000 votes while the PTI candidate got 11,000 votes. [The perpetrators’] purpose was to affect the polling process,” he said.
Upon this, Justice Bandial remarked that it was the PML-N workers who had started the unrest and questioned why they would need to do so if the party held sway in the area.
He added that the PML-N seemed to be happy with the election results since it had not raised any objections to which Raja replied that the party had filed a petition with the ECP in connection with the NA-75 by-polls.
The judge questioned why polling in the entire NA-75 consistency was deemed necessary when the issues seemed only to relate to 23 polling stations. He also asked the PML-N counsel whether the POs had left the polling stations as per procedure, to which the counsel replied that they had left along with police officials.
However, Raja added, their return was “unusual as they came back together and were afraid”.
Justice Muneeb Akhtar questioned the process through which the ECP had taken the decision of holding re-elections in the entire constituency.
Raja replied that the ECP had taken the decision after “complete action according to its code of conduct”.
“The Election Commission gave everyone the opportunity. No one raised any objections to re-polling in the entire constituency. The effect of what happened in Daska on the day of polling is important,” he further said.
The bench observed that Raja’s arguments had not yet finished while the other respondents also had to be heard.
“[For now] the decision of the election commission to hold re-election stands,” said Justice Umar Ata Bandial. “But the court is postponing its holding on April 10.”
The court adjourned further proceedings for an indefinite period.
