PML-N moves LHC against 'unconstitutional' election of PA Speaker

Malik Saiful Malook Khokhar, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate for Friday’s Punjab Assembly speaker election, approached the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Saturday claiming that the election was held in an ‘illegal and unconstitutional manner’.

In his petition, filed alongside PML-N MPA Mian Abdul Rauf, Khokhar contended that the contest on the speaker’s slot was a 'sheer violation' of Article 226 which said that: “all elections under the Constitution, other than those of the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister, shall be by secret ballot”.

The petitioners maintained that the balloting had not been secret and that “the ballot papers and counterfoils were serial numbered in such a manner that the choice exercised by each MPA could be identified by comparing the serial number on the ballot paper and the serial number and signatures of MPAs on the counterfoils of the ballot papers. As a result, the secrecy of the ballot could easily be breached”.

The PML-N members indicated the matter verbally and through a written application to the respondent panel of chairmen Waseem Khan Badozai and the assembly secretary, both of whom refused to take any action.

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According to the petition, rather than addressing their grievances, security was called in 'to brutalize the petitioners and their supporters'.

The PML-N implored that facts and circumstances led to a “blatant unconstitutional subversion of the election process” for the speaker of the provincial assembly.

“Against the aforementioned arbitrary, unreasonable, unconstitutional, without jurisdiction, Impugned order/inaction of the respondents, the petitioners have no alternate or efficacious remedy except to invoke the constitutional jurisdiction of this court,” the petition stated.

They further requested that the court declare the “impugned” election illegal and proclaim the contest to be void.

The PML-N, in its petition, further prayed that the respondent and newly elected Speaker of the Punjab Assembly Sibtain Khan be restrained from exercising powers and performing functions of the speaker till the final decision of the petition.

Earlier on Friday, Sibtain Khan won 185 votes from the lawmakers from the PTI, the PML-Q and other allies. His rival PML-N’s Saiful Malook Khokhar obtained 175 votes – three short of the opposition’s total strength of 178 in the provincial legislature. He undertook the oath on Saturday in the provincial capital.