Election tribunals: Important poll verdicts expected this month
ECP officials say tribunals had to adjourn cases longer than a week due to technical reasons.
ECP officials say tribunals had to adjourn cases longer than a week due to technical reasons. PHOTO: AFP
ISLAMABAD:
Some important decisions regarding last year’s general polls are expected this month as the tenure of post election tribunals ends on April 30.
“Around 50 cases are at the final stages and decisions will be announced within a couple of weeks. Most of the petitions will be disposed of by April 30, before expiry of the tribunals’ term,” an official of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) told The Express Tribune.
The ECP, on April 30, 2013, had notified 14 tribunals – five for Punjab and three each for the rest of the three provinces to hear post-election petitions for May 11, 2013 general elections.
These tribunals – constituted for a one-year period – comprised retired judges of the high courts and were supposed to conduct hearing of the cases on day to day basis and dispose of a case within 120 days.
After the general elections, the ECP received a total 409 petitions, while one petition was filed directly with a Lahore tribunal.
The ECP’s law branch does not have the exact data of the number of cases pending before the tribunals. However, the official said around 50 of the pending cases were at the final stages where all the legal formalities had been completed and the relevant tribunals just had to announce the decision.
These decisions – some of which are about constituencies of prominent politicians – were expected within a couple of weeks, he official added.
Starting slow, the tribunals have gained pace recently and have ordered re-polling in many of the constituencies after investigations proved rigging charges were true.
As of February 28 this year, 220 out of 410 of the post-election disputes were decided by the tribunals and the ECP (195 out of 385 by tribunals and 25 by the ECP). However, around a dozen decisions came during the last one month.
During the last one week, a tribunal in Sindh ordered re-polling at 21 polling stations of National Assembly’s constituency NA-202 Shikarpur. Another tribunal in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) ordered re-poll in the whole of NA-46 constituency in Tribal Areas. Similar verdicts came for many other national and provincial assemblies’ constituencies.
The election tribunals are legally bound to decide a petition within 120 days of their receipt. The ECP can accept petitions within 45 days of the gazette notification of the returned candidates and can either dismiss or forward a petition to the respective tribunal at a time it may deem fit after initial scrutiny.
According to the data collected by FAFEN – an NGO that actively follows electoral matters – a Lahore tribunal received at least two petitions on January 29, 2014.
The ECP for the first time in the country’s electoral history had appointed retired judges to hear post-election complaints and under the amended laws the tribunals were to hear petitions on a day-to-day basis and were not allowed to adjourn for more than seven days, unless there were compelling reasons.
The ECP officials said despite these clear directives the tribunals had to adjourn cases longer than a week due to technical reasons like verification of thumb impressions on counterfoils of the ballot boxes to verify authenticity of the voter.
This technical task had to be performed by National Database Registration Authority (Nadra), which is yet to verify thumb impressions for many of the constituencies referred to it by the tribunals. It is alleged that a proactive Nadra chief lost his job for not bowing to pressure from certain influential political figures.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 7th, 2014.
Some important decisions regarding last year’s general polls are expected this month as the tenure of post election tribunals ends on April 30.
“Around 50 cases are at the final stages and decisions will be announced within a couple of weeks. Most of the petitions will be disposed of by April 30, before expiry of the tribunals’ term,” an official of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) told The Express Tribune.
The ECP, on April 30, 2013, had notified 14 tribunals – five for Punjab and three each for the rest of the three provinces to hear post-election petitions for May 11, 2013 general elections.
These tribunals – constituted for a one-year period – comprised retired judges of the high courts and were supposed to conduct hearing of the cases on day to day basis and dispose of a case within 120 days.
After the general elections, the ECP received a total 409 petitions, while one petition was filed directly with a Lahore tribunal.
The ECP’s law branch does not have the exact data of the number of cases pending before the tribunals. However, the official said around 50 of the pending cases were at the final stages where all the legal formalities had been completed and the relevant tribunals just had to announce the decision.
These decisions – some of which are about constituencies of prominent politicians – were expected within a couple of weeks, he official added.
Starting slow, the tribunals have gained pace recently and have ordered re-polling in many of the constituencies after investigations proved rigging charges were true.
As of February 28 this year, 220 out of 410 of the post-election disputes were decided by the tribunals and the ECP (195 out of 385 by tribunals and 25 by the ECP). However, around a dozen decisions came during the last one month.
During the last one week, a tribunal in Sindh ordered re-polling at 21 polling stations of National Assembly’s constituency NA-202 Shikarpur. Another tribunal in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) ordered re-poll in the whole of NA-46 constituency in Tribal Areas. Similar verdicts came for many other national and provincial assemblies’ constituencies.
The election tribunals are legally bound to decide a petition within 120 days of their receipt. The ECP can accept petitions within 45 days of the gazette notification of the returned candidates and can either dismiss or forward a petition to the respective tribunal at a time it may deem fit after initial scrutiny.
According to the data collected by FAFEN – an NGO that actively follows electoral matters – a Lahore tribunal received at least two petitions on January 29, 2014.
The ECP for the first time in the country’s electoral history had appointed retired judges to hear post-election complaints and under the amended laws the tribunals were to hear petitions on a day-to-day basis and were not allowed to adjourn for more than seven days, unless there were compelling reasons.
The ECP officials said despite these clear directives the tribunals had to adjourn cases longer than a week due to technical reasons like verification of thumb impressions on counterfoils of the ballot boxes to verify authenticity of the voter.
This technical task had to be performed by National Database Registration Authority (Nadra), which is yet to verify thumb impressions for many of the constituencies referred to it by the tribunals. It is alleged that a proactive Nadra chief lost his job for not bowing to pressure from certain influential political figures.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 7th, 2014.