NA-249: Election tribunal issues notice to MQM MNA for verification of voters' thumb impression

The tribunal asks the respondent to file comments by October 23.

KARACHI:

The election tribunal issued notice to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Dr Muhammad Farooq Sattar on Saturday on a plea seeking verification of the thumb impression of the voters in a national assembly constituency, NA-249, in Karachi.

The tribunal, headed by Zafar Ahmed Khan Sherwani, asked the respondent, MNA Sattar, to file his comments by October 23.

Sattar had won the general elections on the NA-249 seat on May 11 after defeating his rival Pakistan Peoples' Party (PPP) candidate Adul Aziz Memon. Memon, however, approached the election tribunal against the alleged irregularities and violations of the election laws and rigging committed by the respondent.

The petitioner claimed that the results of the election from the constituency are doubtful. According to him, the results from some polling stations in the constituency were announced much before the polling time ended, which was a violation of the provisions of the Representation of the Peoples Act 1976.

He requested the tribunal to order verification of the thumb impression of the voters through the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) to determine how many bogus votes were cast.

The tribunal had issued a notice to Dr Sattar for filing his comments to the petition by October 23.



NA-256 controversy

The tribunal also granted time to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's Muhammad Zubair Khan and MQM's Ali Muhammad Iqbal to file their objections, if any, about the Nadra report regarding the voters thumb impression verification in NA-256.

Last week, the Nadra report unearthed massive irregularities allegedly committed during the general elections on the national assembly seat.

According to the authority, it had received material relating to 84,748 votes cast in the constituency. Of them, the fingerprints on only 86,815 counterfoils and electoral rolls could be successfully verified.

The authority had claimed that voters fingerprint affixed on 57,642 counterfoils and electoral rolls could not be verified due to poor quality of the ink. Meanwhile, invalid NIC numbers were stated on 11,343 counterfoils, and the fingerprints on 1,950 used counterfoils and electoral rolls could not be authenticated during the verification process.

The MQM has strongly reacted to the report's results, claiming that the failure to determine the authenticity of 57,642 votes did not mean rigging, adding that Nadra was to blame for this.

It has also challenged the Nadra report's results by filing a petition to the Sindh High Court, which is expected to take up the matter next week.

On Saturday, the tribunal, however, directed the petitioner and the respondent to file their objections, if any, to the Nadra report by the next date of hearing.

PS-32

The tribunal also directed the Nadra authorities to submit a report containing the results of the verification of the thumb impression of voters who had cast their votes in PS-32 Khairpur constituency, by October 23.

PML-F Shah Nawaz Talpur had challenged results of the election won by PPP's Manzoor Wasan.

Meanwhile, hearing on the plea of PML-N's Sultan Khan Johri who challenged results of PS-128 election won by MQM's Syed Waqar Hussain Shah was adjourned till October 23.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 13^th, 2013.