LAHORE: The Supreme Court (SC), while giving a brief verdict in the case regarding the Daska by-elections, upheld the earlier order of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for re-polling in NA-75, thus allowing for voting to be conducted in the constituency on April 10.
The apex court heard the concluding arguments of the Election Commission and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Friday.
PTI’s Asjad Ali Malhi, who contested the by-elections, had approached the SC, challenging the ECP’s decision to hold re-polls in the entire constituency.
Earlier, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) demanded re-polling in 109 “controversial” polling stations of the NA-75 Daska, if not the entire constituency.
Violence had marred the NA-75 by-election which had taken place in February, as firing incidences claimed the lives of two people and injured a few.
Clashes between PML-N and PTI workers led to the deaths. Both parties had blamed each other for the violence, after which the ECP ordered re-polling in the entire constituency.
While announcing the reserved judgment on Friday, Justice Umar Ata Bandial remarked that the situation was not under control in the constituency on the day of polling.
In an earlier hearing, the apex court had suspended the Election Commission’s order to hold re-polling in the constituency on April 10.
The bench had said that the court needed more time to decide the case. “At the moment, we are hearing Salman Akram Raja’s [the PML-N candidate’s lawyer] arguments. We have to hear [the arguments of] other parties to the case apart from Nosheen Ahmed [PML-N candidate],” the court had said.
The apex court had adjourned proceedings of the case for an unspecified period. “The decision of the ECP to hold re-polling stands,” Justice Umar Ata Bandial had said. “For the moment, we are postponing the decision to hold it on April 10.”
Raja had presented a map of district Daska during the hearing of the case to which Justice Umar Ata Bandial had an interesting remark.
“You’ve prepared a lot of material in just a day’s time,” the judge had said.
In response, Raja pointed out there were 76 polling stations in Daska and that complaints of irregularities were reported in 34 of them.
“The ECP identified these 34 polling stations and even 20 presiding officers went missing,” he had said.
“It is even said polling was delayed at 10 polling stations for quite some time,” Justice Bandial had said. “The question is, who was behind such a move and why?”
The judge had wondered whether the irregularities took place because one candidate was strong and the other had to resort to such measures to win.
“Nosheen’s father has won from Daska five times,” Raja had argued. “Her family has a lot of influence in the city. She was supposed to poll 46,000 votes while the PTI candidate was expected to poll 11,000 votes,” he added.
Raja had said that it was in the PTI candidate’s interest to mar the polls since its candidate did not stand a chance of winning the contest.
Later on Friday, PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz expressed happiness over the top court’s decision.
In a post on the microblogging website Twitter, Maryam said, “Today, it has been proved that Prime Minister Imran Khan and his government had stolen the votes of Daska people.”
These “corrupt elements” also need to be made accountable for the kidnapping of Election Commission staff, she demanded.
Maryam further congratulated the PML-N workers and candidate Nosheen for bravely fighting these “thieves”.
Meanwhile, PML-N Spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said that the decision of SC represents the stance of the masses. We will expose the conspiracy of disrespecting the vote and abducting electoral staff, she assured.
