SC orders vote verification in NA-125
Election tribunal on Tuesday declared the plea filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Aleem Khan in NA-122 rigging case as inadmissible.
According to details, Justice Qamar Rasheed heard the case during which the decision regarding the case of NA-122 alleged transference of votes case was taken. The judge after hearing the arguments dismissed the petition.
Earlier, Aleem Khan submitted a petition, stating that rigging was taken place at massive level by transferring as many as 30,000 votes during byelections in NA-122. He alleged that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's (PML-N) Sardar Ayaz Sadiq won the polls by rigging, therefore, he urged to declare the results as null and void.
The plea stated that the ECP record shows that 26,000 new voters were registered and 4,600 votes were transferred during last two years. Only 812 voters personally confirmed that they transferred their votes out of the constituency whereas votes of others were shifted from the constituency against their will.
PML-N's Ayaz Sadiq took oath as Speaker of the National Assembly for the second time.
Meanwhile, The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered verification of voter thumb impressions and counterfoils in Lahore's NA-125 constituency, where Railways Minister Saad Rafique of the PML-N had defeated Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf's (PTI) Hamid Khan in the 2013 general elections.
A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali directed the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) to submit a report on vote verification in 90 days. Hearing a petition filed by Rafique against the decision of an election tribunal that had deseated him from the National Assembly (NA) and ordered re-polling in the constituency, the apex court also ordered PTI leader Hamid Khan to bear expenses of the vote verification process.
In May last year, an election tribunal had ordered re-election in NA-125 after Hamid Khan filed a petition alleging rigging in the 2013 polls. In response, Rafique approached the apex court which suspended the May 4 decision of the election tribunal to de-seat Rafique "pending a decision" by the court. Rafique, whose NA membership had been suspended after the tribunal verdict, was re-instated as member of the legislature by the election commission following the SC order.