ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan filed a follow-up appeal on Friday to his previous petition seeking removal of bogus votes from voter lists and asked that the by-elections scheduled for February 25 be stopped.
In his civil miscellaneous appeal filed in the apex court through advocate Hamid Khan, the PTI chief accused the Election Commission of Pakistan of holding by-elections without correcting the current voter lists.
Earlier, the ECP had stated that the deadline given by the Supreme Court to purge the lists of bogus votes by February 23, 2012 was ‘not humanly impossible’, and had sought assistance from political parties for extension of the deadline.
Hamid Khan told The Express Tribune that the new appeal was submitted because the ECP was conducting elections on the same date, despite the court’s orders to correct the voter lists. The Supreme Court, while hearing Khan’s earlier petition, had observed that elections cannot be conducted based on the old electoral lists.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had remarked that the previous lists had over 30 million bogus votes which could not be verified.
“We have challenged the January 27 notification of the ECP to hold by-election on 25th of this month and asked the court to restrain the ECP from holding by-elections on the basis of polluted voter lists,” Hamid Khan said.
Khan held that the ECP was going to hold elections in defiance of the apex court’s January 19 order whereby the ECP was restrained from holding by-elections on the basis of polluted voter lists having as many as 37,185,998 unverified votes.
In a related development, television anchorperson Mubasher Lucman filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking postponement of the upcoming Senate election.
Barrister Ali Zafar, the counsel for Lucman, held in his petition that 70 members of the National Assembly and provincial assemblies are fake degree holders and their cases are pending before different accountability forums. The petition argued that the ECP held 29 by-elections on the basis of fake voter lists contrary to the Supreme Court’s ruling.
The upcoming election of the upper house of Parliament should not be held until the fate of these 100 members is decided, according to the petitioner.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 4th, 2012.
COMMENTS (45)
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Error free voterlists are a necessary requisite for a free and fair elections.
Lol look at the clowns in the comment section who are defending Rigged election and bogus votes. What are you afraid of, Democracy???
Akhtar., you are an extremely narrowminded human hating individual, as mentioned by your comments. Is being a jew a sin in the first place? no wonder people like you cannot look at others and their postivie aspects. Moreover, Imran's wife is a christian and not even jewish..total ignorance!
Stop elections, boycott elections. Khan sahib do you've something new in politics? If you're afraid of losing by elections; then accept your advance defeat like a true sportsman and stop blaming others.
Mush govt made these lists to get the results of his liking. PPP was nowhere near in the govt at that time. Despite these flawed lists PPP came out as the largest party. Now the politicians have to make a simple decision. Do they want by-polls let alone the next general elections using the old lists or new lists? If new lists then they have to wait a bit, they cannot have both. The matter of new lists is in SC and let the process work out.
Bogus votes will bring bogus politicians. Is it a rocket science.
@Akhtar please first read my comment carefully.. if u have read it ........
I talked about the people who have dual nationals living abroad should be allowed to vote. i never talked about politicians having dual nationalities...!!!!!!!! I am also against politicians having dual nationalities.
And why are you after imran khan's kids. They are still small. The eldest son is only fifteen. Imran khan's EX WIFE has the custody of their kids. Kids can make choice who they want to live once they are a bit older. That is what the law says.. we need to get our research done before commenting... AND WHY DO WE NEED TO GET INVOLVED IN ONE'S PERSONAL ISSUES... PAKISTAN IS FACING OTHER MAJOR ISSUES WHICH CAN BE DISCUSSED ABOUT
@Akhtar: My dear brother please do not raise such foolish issues. I am NOT a PTI/IK supporter but do you know that Islam allows us to marry women from amongst the people of the Book and Jews are Ahle-Kitab. Nothing wrong in that. And what is wrong with getting educated in England? Did not the Holy Prophet say that we should even travel to China to seek knowledge? Please open up your mind and don't be petty minded.
@sa Why should Imran
s kid have foreign nationalities? He claims he a Paki, right? If hes a Paki & wants to bring changes to the education system, why not put the kids in schools here?Am against any politician holding dual offices or dual nationalities? A nationality of another country would imply his loyalty/interests are with another country. What happens when there
s a conflict of interest? Britain runs Spy Rings in Pakistan to serve its own interest while Pakistan may perceive it against its interest. What will happen then? Nawaz & Bhuttos story is different as they have been targeted/killed & thrown out of the country by military rules. They had to work in exile.Yes, Overseas Paki`s contribute hugely, but definitely, they should not hold public office while holding a different nationality.
But what happens in reality is, we have too many Paki`s going with emotions without considerable thought. This is why Indians have progressed and you know where we stand.
What about senate elections? Perhaps those elected in by elections will be voting for new senators! So why hinder by elections on the basis of fake lists instead the lists must be rectified before general elections when they are just months away! Still IK want to be another senate-election irritant?
Nobody has EVER won an election through boycott. Imran you should learn to fight election not to boycott them or have them cancelled. "Jaali" votes is the state of things in the subcontinent.
@Blithe Again your information is wrong he has two kids... According to my information Imran khan had said overseas Pakistanis should be given the right to vote. Even the people who have dual nationals living abroad should be allowed to vote.
there is nothing wrong in allowing overseas Pakistanis to cast their vote. Pakistan survives because of the money they send back home
@sa: For the record, I don't care if his wife was Jewish, Zorastrian , Hindu or whatever.
But my opinion on his insistence on dual nationals holding office remains as is. He has got three children with foreign nationalities and he may want to open the door for them in politics.
@Akhtar: Perhaps that is why he supports politicians with dual nationality to hold office. So his children (2 sons and a daughter) may someday assume office in Pakistan.
If IK is a patriot, why he has a Jewish wife? Why his kids are educated in UK, not in Pakistan. Why his family has UK citizenship & not Paki? This shows the double standards of IK!
Most imran fans were previously Zaid Hamid's fans. After zaids exposition, they moved to IK's PTI. Soon they'll move to someone else. I know many fanboys of Zaid who moved to PTI. We all knew what happened at ghazwaehind, same story repeats now. PML-N zzindabad
Imran knows he faces defeat, so trying to find excuse!
see some mad people are calling this democracy! this is not democracy i will call DEMOCRAZY....
@Truth Exposed: And what about 18th amendment? Why was IK openly in support of renaming NWFP to KPK, if it was done on the basis of an ineligable parliment????
We want early elections (Imran Khan demanded) Imran Khan files appeal to stop elections. Who is real Imran Khan (asks Salman Rushdi)There is no doubt that if free and fair elections are held, Imran Khan will win by a massive margin. However, having free and fair elections is the biggest challenge for us. It's the only obstacle between Imran Khan and PM Office.
There should be no by elections. With general elections just around the corner, why go through such expense?
So, the defeat has been forecasted.
Well done Khan.
what about Senate Elections? They are also being done on the basis of assemblies who were elected on the basis of fake votes!
ECP & NADRA should prepare voter lists of these areas where election has to held, then proceed for Bi-Elections.
the only thing which can bring change in pakistan is free and fair elections
why can't ECP & NADRA prepare voter lists of the areas where Bi-Elections has to held on priority basis, and then proceed for the elections.
Notwithstanding the clash of institutions... ECP could have asked NADRA to prepare electoral rolls of constituencies where elections are to be held. This way, at least the current by-elections could have gained some credibility. Credibility in Pakistan, though, is an extinct specie.
Spoil sports, they boycott elections becasue they are afraid to loose and now they wont let anyone contest elections. Anti democratic forces
@colonel Why not score a point when its beneficial for the public as well as IK himself ?
SC has rejected 30 million votes as bogus in last elections. Does it makes sense to conduct elections on those bugus lists ?
SC wants fair electoral voter's list- good enough.
ECP is not denying that but it is time, labor and means constrianted to do that before its constitutionally appointed time schedule.
Solution is in the parliament. Whatever happened to the twentieth amendment ?
What is needed is the solution to the crisis and not more uncertainty, orders, and writ.
kaptaan knows he will lose in bye elections. he is not prepared as ususal
Totally agree with kaptaan! they should stop by-elections on fake voter list
Political point scoring
The biggest challenge is ensuring free, fair and transparent elections of 2013. So far we have witnessed instances of elections in Kashmir, GB, Punjab and elsewhere of government dominating setups during by-elections.