LHC seeks report on PbBC vote counting

Chief Justice Lahore High Court (LHC) Muhammad Qasim Khan has sought a report from returning officer on a ‘mechanism of counting votes and how the result is prepared’ in a plea challenging counting process of Punjab Bar Council (PbBC) election.

As the proceedings commenced, hundreds of lawyers had assembled at in and outside the courtroom to attend the proceedings.

The province’s top judge Khan seemed to direct those lawyers, who had no case in that court, to follow the SOPs of maintaining social distance to avoid Covid-19.

The petitioner’s counsel SM Zeeshan Mirza implored the court that an application was moved to Ahmed Awais Advocate General Punjab who served as Returning Officer in PbBC election for getting recounted the votes but the RO denied the plea. He objected to the process to examine the results arguing the RO claimed the result which will be obtained from the Polling Officer could only be examined.

He argued that as per the version of the RO only ballot paper will be examined rather than recounting the votes. He contended the court that how could we verify the cancelled votes if the votes will not be counted. He submitted that the counting process of PbBC election is not fair. The RO must count the votes as well as announcing results, he argued.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 8^th, 2020.