Vote audit: PML-N loses 3rd wicket as re-poll ordered in NA-154

Election tribunal unseats Siddiq Baloch, disqualifies him for life

MULTAN:

The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz suffered a second setback in less than a week when its federal lawmaker from NA-154 (Lodhran), Siddiq Khan Baloch, was unseated and disqualified for life by an election tribunal on Wednesday which ordered reelection in the constituency.

Justice (retd) Rana Zahid Mehmood Gondal of the election tribunal gave the verdict on a petition filed by Jehangir Tareen of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), who was defeated by Baloch, then independent candidate enjoying unofficial support of the PML-N, in the 2013 parliamentary elections.

NA-154 is one of the four National Assembly constituencies where PTI Chairman Imran Khan had called for vote audit before launching his long march and dharna against the PML-N government.

Baloch is the third PML-N federal lawmaker to be unseated by election tribunals. Earlier tribunals in Lahore had declared polls in NA-125 and NA-122 null and void. The two constituencies were won by PML-N stalwarts Khawaja Saad Rafique and Sardar Ayaz Sadiq respectively.

Justice (retd) Gondal had started hearing on Tareen’s petition on August 15, 2013 and completed the proceedings after 131 hearings. On August 22, 2015, the judge reserved the verdict which was announced on Wednesday.



On May 21, 2014, the tribunal had directed the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) to verify thumbprints of all voters in the constituency. In its subsequent report, NADRA revealed that of 218,056 votes cast at 290 polling stations, 20,601 were with invalid CNICs or without identity cards.

Similarly, 121 voters were not registered in the constituency, while there were 728 duplicate votes and 587 votes without thumbprints. The report said NADRA verified thumbprints on 73,707 votes, while thumb impressions on 179 votes could not be verified.

Moreover, NADRA could not verify 122,133 votes that had blurred thumbprints due to unavailability of the proposed magnetic ink, besides other possibilities. However, CNIC numbers mentioned on counterfoils of these votes were valid.

In its short order, the tribunal ruled that mismanagement and irregularities took place in NA-154 during the May 2013 elections. It also disqualified Baloch from contesting any future elections as his educational degrees and certificates were forged.

Commenting on the verdict, Baloch said the tribunal had wrongly declared his election null and void. “We are held responsible for the mistakes of the Election Commission of Pakistan. If this is how rigging is established, then all general elections in Pakistan had been rigged,” he said. He also called his disqualification unjust.

On his part, Tareen described the tribunal’s decision as ‘victory of the people of Pakistan who, he said, were duped through a conspiracy by the PML-N in the 2013 general elections. “Today, we have a public example of justice delivered,” he said.


Published in The Express Tribune, August 27^th, 2015.