NA-125: PTI candidate wants ECP to foot vote verification bill

Hamid argues he bore expenses for thumbprint verification during tribunal hearing

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Hamid Khan, who has been contesting the results of NA-125, has urged the Supreme Court to ask the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to bear voter verification expenses.

In a petition filed before a three-judge bench of the apex court on Monday, Khan pleaded the court to recall a section of its January 26 order that puts the burden of verification expenses on him. Instead, he urged SC to order the ECP to bear expenses of verifying thumb impressions on counter-foils from 265 polling stations.

The standard cost for verifying each thumbprint is Rs10.

Khan had lost NA-125 to incumbent Khwaja Saad Rafique of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) during the May 2013 general elections. The PTI candidate had finished second with 84,495 votes, behind Rafique who had secured 123,416 votes.

Alleging rigging, Khan and the PTI had challenged the results before an election tribunal. The tribunal on May 4, 2015, had ordered re-polling in the constituency. But Rafique challenged the tribunal’s ruling before the Supreme Court just days later.

In his petition filed before the court on Monday, Khan argued that while the case was being heard by the election tribunal, he had borne all costs for checking and inspection of ballot bags from the 265 polling stations in the constituency. These bags, he argued, were subsequently sent to the forensic science laboratory and then to the National Database Regulatory Authority (Nadra) for verification of thumb impressions – costs for which he had borne.

The PTI candidate claimed that he cannot be held responsible for illegal acts, omissions or failures on part of the ECP or its officials.

The court may take up the petition in the coming days.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 16^th, 2016.