Pakistan

SC orders vote verification in Khawaja Asif's constituency

Defence minister was elected from the NA-110 constituency during the May 2013 general elections

Hasnaat Mailk January 19, 2016

Khawaja Asif PHOTO: REUTERS

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday called for a vote verification in the NA-110 constituency from which Defence Minister Khawaja Asif was elected.

A three-judge bench of the apex court headed by chief justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali directed NADRA to complete the verification of thumb impressions within three months. The order came during the hearing of a plea filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf candidate Usman Dar regarding rigging in NA-110 during the May 2013 general elections.

The Election Commission of Pakistan has been directed to provide the whole record related to counter files and ballot papers to NADRA for verification.

Vote Verification: SC to hear petition challenging PML-N bigwig seats today

A petition was earlier taken up by the apex court seeking "verification of thumb impressions" in some constituencies won by key PML-N politicians in the May 2013 general elections.

The petition was filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan who alleged massive fraud in the general elections and called for the verification of voters’ thumb impressions. “Our stance is that there were massive fake votes in the May 11 elections and we have chosen these four constituencies for verification of thumb impressions as a test case,” said the PTI counsel. He said that his party will decide which other constituencies it has to challenge after the court’s decision on this petition. “We were raising the issue of bogus votes from day one and now the interior minister himself admitted that there are 60,000 to 70,000 bogus votes in every constituency. These should be verified,” he had maintained.

Vote fraud: Top court to hear PTI’s petition

In December 2013, the top court admitted miscellaneous petitions seeking the verification of thumb impressions in four constituencies for preliminary hearing after Imran’s attorney Hamid Khan shot down objections raised by the Supreme Court registrar against his client’s petition. The petition filed by Imran in June that year was returned by the registrar's office and the petitioner was asked to approach another forum for this purpose.

Rigging complaints: With no deadline, election tribunals fail to deliver [orders]

National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq was elected on NA-122; Defence Minister Khawaja Asif won from NA-110; Railway Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique defeated PTI’s Hamid Khan in NA-125 and Sadiq Baloch outvoted PTI’s Secretary General Jahangir Tareen in NA-154.

COMMENTS (6)

Raghu | 8 years ago | Reply @Lobster: He won fair and square.

adnans hair | 8 years ago | Reply I can see another by-election being called and Kh asif being booted out, as the other blue eyed PMLN poster boy Sadiq Baloch was recently booted out from NA154. I fear for PMLN cheerleaders who have not yet recovered from that devastating blow Then again, Kh asif will probably take a stay order as the other hero of PMLN sad rafiq...so you PMLN cheerleaders can relax and enjoy the metro bus, metro train and metro tax amnesty. :)

VIEW MORE COMMENTS

Shakil Ahmed Khan | 8 years ago | Reply and who controls NADRA - just remind me! ECP and NADRA will do what government wants. 3 years gone and they still verifying the votes that now be so much tempered with. if tempered and even with ECP and NADRA verification scam, SC should nulify any results if there is a slight tempered and poll rigging is detected or suspected. I think no one should be allowed to enter assemblies unless they are cleared by Tribunal first if they have any appeals against them! this will make the process quicker and will stop contestants to pressurise after they become ministers. No one should take oath before validating their election.

Adnan Siddiqi | 8 years ago | Reply The SC's Judicial Commission in it's final report observed the following with regard to thumb impression and counterfoil verification by NADRA: "The fact that votes could not be automatedly checked through thumb impressions, did not mean that they were invalid votes as the counterfoils according to NADRA reports bore CNIC numbers and were from the same constituency as those of the NADRA database." If having thumb impressions verified against NADRA's record was the issue, a financier and money machine like Usman Dar could have easily afforded to have every vote verified out of his own pocket and submitted the findings with the Election Tribunal in the first place. Fan boys are getting excited for nothing.

Lobster | 8 years ago | Reply What a farce! The guy has been minister for more than half of term and its unsure if he was legitimitaly elected. Bravo ECP and bravo judiciary!

ROCKY | 8 years ago | Reply More than half of the govt. term is gone, decisions are coming at snails pace. Eventually one of the parties would be able to prove a point nothing more, but it would be too late by then..

Replying to X