Verification of votes: SC gives PTI leader four weeks to deposit money

Hamid Khan to deposit money for verification of ballots cast at Assembly’s NA125 constituency during 2013 Elections

ISLAMABAD:

The top court has given four-week time to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Hamid Khan to deposit money for verification of ballots cast at the National Assembly’s NA-125 constituency during the May 2013 General Elections, adding that otherwise it will recall its January 26 order.

On January 26, the Supreme Court’s three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, ordered the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) to verify thumb impression on the counterfoil of the votes cast in the constituency and to submit report in eight weeks.

Ruling that it would pass an appropriate order after Nadra filed its report, the court had asked the PTI candidate to bear expenses of the verification. However, Hamid Khan on February 15 filed in the apex court an application citing his inability to bear the expenses of verification.

He requested the court to recall its January 26 order to the extent of bearing the verification’s cost.

However, the court on Tuesday made it clear that if the PTI leader failed to deposit the money then the bench would recall its earlier order and decide the matter on the basis of the appeal.

Hamid Khan – who was defeated in the May 2013 elections by the PML-N’s Khawaja Saad Rafique – had later challenged Rafique’s victory in an Election Tribunal, which in May 2015 de-seated Rafiq and ordered for reelection at the constituency.

Later, Rafiq approached the SC, which stayed the tribunal’s decision. Hamid Khan informed the bench that it was not possible for him to bear the cost as the ECP had asked him to deposit Rs200,000 for transportation of the ballots to Islamabad, while Nadra was demanding Rs10 per ballot paper.  This verification will, therefore, cost millions of rupees as around 220,000 votes were polled in NA-125, he said

He asked the SC to direct the ECP to bear the expenses of verification. However, the court rejected his plea.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 2^nd, 2016.