Case dismissed: Tribunal rejects petition against Farooq Sattar

PPP candidate had requested thumb print verification amidst rigging allegations.

KARACHI:

The election tribunal dismissed a petition seeking thumb print verification of the voters in Karachi’s National Assembly constituency, NA-249, which was won by Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Dr Muhammad Farooq Sattar.

The tribunal, headed by Zafar Ahmed Khan Sherwani, passed this order on Saturday on the plea filed by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) candidate Abdul Aziz Memon.

Sattar won the general elections on the NA-249 seat on May 11 after defeating Memon. The PPP candidate, however, approached the election tribunal against the alleged election laws violations committed by Sattar.

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

In his plea, Memon requested the tribunal to order thumb impression verification of the voters through the National Database and Registration Authority to determine the authenticity of the votes cast.

Sattar’s lawyer Obaidur Rehman raised objections to the petition on Saturday. He argued that the petition was not eligible for hearing since the initial objections, including non-verification of documents, have not been removed by the petitioner. The tribunal dismissed the plea on the basis of these objections.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 17^th, 2013.