The petition was filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan who has alleged massive fraud in the elections and called for the verification of voters’ thumb impressions with the help of the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA).
On Monday, the top court admitted the civil miscellaneous petition seeking verification of thumb impressions in four constituencies for preliminary hearing after Imran’s attorney Hamid Khan shot down the objections raised by the Supreme Court registrar against his client’s petition.
The petition filed by Imran on June 8 was returned by the registrar office and the petitioner was asked to approach another forum for this purpose.
A three-judge bench ordered the registrar office to fix Imran’s petition in the Workers Party of Pakistan’s case within seven days for regular hearing. Hamid requested the court that as a first step to check the fairness of the 2013 general elections “the apex court may order verification of thumb impressions in four constituencies: NA-110, NA-122, NA-125 and NA 154”.
The development came a day after Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan invited the parliamentary leaders of all political parties for a brainstorming session on the vote fraud controversy. “We are ready to hold thumb impression verification of voters in all 272 directly elected seats of the National Assembly under the supervision of Justice (retd) Wajiuddin Ahmed of the PTI,” he said in a letter to the parliamentary leaders.
National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq was elected on NA-122; Defence Minister Khawaja Asif won from NA-110; Railway Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique defeated PTI’s Hamid Khan in NA-125 and Sadiq Baloch outvoted PTI’s Secretary General Jahangir Tareen in NA-154.
“This will open Pandora’s Box and the nation will know how the PTI’s mandate was stolen,” said PTI leader Hamid Khan.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 10th, 2013.
COMMENTS (26)
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@uet: file a petition in the court.
@uet: Go file the petition and if that petition doesn't get accepted then comment.
@Oneman
What has the Sharif family done since they were elected? Name one thing that has materailised?
Sharif family is wiener u people have to accept the reality. Try to win next time. We are with Nawz Sharif and He is true Pakistani leader. We proud on him. Imran khan is sport person cant be leader.
How can the votes even be verified if magnetic ink was not used by nadra in the first place? This sounds daft. This is a technical glitch on the back of which pti is trying to create havoc.
is this the reason government is desperately trying to remove current NADRA chairman.
@uet: Was IK contesting bye elections too? Never knew that.
We as citizens of Pakistan have the right to know if PMLn's mandate is genuine or fake.
Is this becoming a PTI newspaper?
Wish u good luck to fight against election rigging. You are fighting for people of Pakistan.
Hope will give time for this case which is the most important among all the cases court used to listen since many years. This case will decide the fate of Pakistan. This will show what is the difference between India and Pakistan. India holding election on electronic voting since 20 years and there is no complaints of bogus vote and rigging. Cant we learned from our neighbor
You can never hide the truth. Even if you have all the power in the world, truth will always prevail. PMLN, I don't know what you were thinking.
Indeed. Good step. Fairness must rule.
Kudos supreme court. Now please make sure that the proper verification is done and show the real faces of these dishonest status quo to the masses.
Kudos Supreme Court. Now please make sure that the verification is done in a transparent manner and the people who stole our mandate are held accountable and are given an exemplary punishment.
High time the high-handedness of PMLN is exposed. If the SC is serious about holding an image of impartiality, it should address PTI's grievances.
There is no harm in re-counting or verification of the results on scientific basis. Let us hope and pray that it would calm the winners and losers till next elections. Hopefully if the results do not show a major problem then PTI and IK would accept the verdict in the two largest provinces.
Thumb verification for Mianwali and Peshawar , Imran Khans seats too. So we can know the truth why Imran won on May 11th and lost badly in bye elections.
I hope this bring an end to last elections' controversy and these politician get on to business for which they were elected. I yet have to see any real work done by any of these politicians, including PTI.
Well done Hamid Khan.