The game that never ends: PHC accepts petitions of runners-up from NA-9, NA-34

Both losing candidates’ applications were earlier rejected by election tribunals.

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday accepted the application of the runner-up from Mardan’s NA-9 seeking thumb verification of votes polled on May 11, 2013. A division bench comprising Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Malik Manzoor Hussain also accepted the application of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Mohammad Bashir Khan who lost his seat to Jamaat-e-Islami’s Sahibzada Muhammad Yaqoob on Lower Dir’s NA-34.

Moreover, the bench rejected three election petitions which included Munir Khan Orakzai’s case challenging the election of Senator Hilal Rehman from Mohmand Agency and two others.

In the first election petition, NA-9’s runner-up Nasir Khan challenged the rejection of two applications by the election tribunal which questioned the victory of former chief minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti as MNA, alleging bogus votes were cast in his favour.

The petitioner approached the election tribunal asking it to verify the thumb impression of all voters in the constituency.

In Nasir’s second application to the tribunal, he wanted to summon witnesses to establish that Hoti owned around 10 kanals of land in Naran area of Mansehra but did not reveal it in his nomination papers.

Both applications were rejected by the election tribunal but accepted by the PHC.

Separately, Bashir had challenged the non-summoning of some witnesses by the election tribunal presently hearing a petition filed by him against Yaqoob’s win from NA-34.

The petitioner had submitted an application alleging that some votes were cast by Afghan nationals and had requested the tribunal to summon a presiding officer to verify his claim. The application was rejected by the election tribunal.

During the hearing of an election tribunal earlier, Senator Rehman’s lawyer Aamir Jawed had said that Orakzai, the losing candidate from Mohmand Agency, had challenged Rehman’s election as a Senator in 2012.

Jawed had said that under Section 36 (3) of the Senate Elections Act, it was necessary that every election petition and annexure attached to it should be signed by the petitioner and be verified. Orakzai had not put his signature on one of the pages of the petition and therefore the petition could not be heard on technical basis. The PHC thus rejected Orakzai’s petition.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 7^th, 2014.