PTI candidate moves court against poll body decision

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehrik-e-insaf (PTI) candidate in the aborted by-election to National Assembly constituency of NA-75 Daska (Sialkot) Ali Asjid Malhi moved the Supreme Court against the decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan ( ECP) to hold a re-poll in the constituency.

He said in his petition there was no legal justification for the ECP to declare the polls null and void, adding that the ECP’S order was “clearly contrary to law and facts of the case.

Malhi contended that the ECP had taken the decision in complete oblivion of the circumstances and facts and it was thus “manifestly unjust and illegal.”

A day after the Feb.19 by-election, the ECP had said it suspected the results of 20 polling stations had been falsified as the Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz (PML-N) alleged massive rigging. The ECP said results from these polling stations were received with “unnecessary delay”, adding that it tried to contact the presiding officers several times but with no success.

The ECP had stopped the district returning officer (DRO) and returning officer (RO) from announcing the initial results for the by-election and directed them to conduct a complete inquiry and identify those responsible for the mismanagement. Later that month, a five-member commission, headed by the chief election commissioner (CEC), ordered that fresh elections be held in Daska on March 18.

In his petition, Malhi said it was “not legal” for the ECP to decide the matter pending before it “through a short order having drastic results”, adding that it was beyond comprehension why the ECP was in “such an urgency” that it passed its decision in the form of a short order.

He argued that the order was in violation of Article 10-A of the Constitution that deals with the right to fair trial and due process and had rendered Article 225 - related to election disputes - redundant.

The petition said the ECP had also violated Section 9 of the Elections Act, 2017 ( power of the commission to declare a poll void), because there was “no basis for the alleged satisfaction of the ECP that the election was marred by grave illegalities which had materially affected the result of the entire constituency”.