NA-256 by-election: SHC dismisses urgent application of ASWJ leader

Petitioner wants cancellation of upcoming by-poll in the constituency till his detention is suspended

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) dismissed on Friday an application seeking an urgent hearing of a petition seeking the cancellation of the upcoming by-election in the NA-256 constituency until the suspension of the Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) candidate's detention under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Ordinance.

A two-judge bench, headed by Justice Irfan Saadat Khan, found no grounds making a case for urgent hearing of the plea. Moulana Taj Muhammad Hanfi, the general secretary of the ASWJ's Karachi chapter, had approached the court against the provincial authorities and Election Commission authorities over his detention and refusal to allow him to contest the polls.

The petitioner said he is a candidate of the ASWJ for the upcoming by-election on the National Assembly seat, which became vacant in October, this year, after the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's communications minister, Abdul Hakeem Baloch, resigned from the seat and joined the Pakistan People's Party.

However, the petitioner said the provincial government had recently ordered his detention in jail for 30 days under the MPO Ordinance.

Advocate Muhammad Akbar Khan argued that due to Hanfi's detention the petitioner will not be able to contest the upcoming by-election. He alleged that no notice was issued by the authorities prior to the issuance of the notification regarding Hanfi's detention under the MPO Ordinance, adding that no reason had been assigned to justify the act.

Advocate Khan pleaded to the court to declare the detention of the petitioner illegal and the operation of the notification issued for his detention should be suspended.

He further contended that, due to his detention, the petitioner is not able to contest the polls and the court was pleaded to stop the election authorities from conducting the NA-256 by-election till the final decision on Hanfi's detention. On Friday, the lawyer moved an application seeking urgent hearing of the petition. The bench members however found no urgency involved in the matter and thus dismissed the application.

The by-election for NA-256 is scheduled to take place on November 24, 2016.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 19^th, 2016.