Poll rigging: Court reserves verdict in PPP MNA case

Petitioner seeks annulment of election results.

LAHORE:

An election tribunal of the Lahore High Court on Monday reserved its verdict in a petition seeking disqualification of PPP MNA Tariq Anees.

Petitioner Daniyal Aziz of the PML-Q filed the petition after he had lost the 2008 general election against Anees from NA-116, Narowal.
Aziz challenged Anees’s success and accused him of poll rigging. He alleged that the respondent, helped by polling staff, had managed to have polled bogus votes in his favour.
The petitioner alleged that Anees’s supporters disrupted polling at as many as 30 stations. One of his (Daniyal’s) supporters who resisted was murdered. He also alleged that the ballot boxes from 30 polling stations were forcibly removed by the respondent.

The petitioner said that he had filed an application with the Narowal district returning officer, who recommended that the Election Commission to hold the inquiry before issuing notification of the returned candidate.
Aziz said the Election Commission, without considering his application and recommendation of the returning officer, announced the result and declared Anees as winner.
He requested the court to set aside the result announced by the Election Commission and direct the officials concerned to issue a notification in his favour.The tribunal comprising Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed reserved the verdict after hearing arguments from both sides.

Earlier, the election tribunal had fined both Aziz and Anees more than once for failing to produce witnesses and not appearing before a local commission, appointed by the tribunal.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 19^th, 2011.