Tribunal declares Imran Khattak victor from NA-5

Brushes aside rigging allegations of runner-up candidate from ANP over lack of evidence.

PESHAWAR: An election tribunal on Friday rejected a petition filed by the runner up candidate from Awami National Party (ANP) in NA-5, Nowshera, against the elected MNA Imran Khattak, from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

Imran’s counsel, Yousaf Ali, told the tribunal that the rival candidate, Daud Khattak, had filed a rigging petition against his client but failed to produce any evidence in support of his claim.

He further contended that the petitioner is not bringing any evidence and several hearings have been conducted in the case. The process is wasting the tribunal’s precious time and thus the case needs to be dismissed, he added.

The tribunal then rejected the rigging petition of the ANP candidate and declared Imran’s victory as valid.

Imran, the son-in-law of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister (CM) Pervez Khattak, was selected to contest the August 22, 2013 by-elections by the party after the CM vacated his National Assembly seat.

During earlier hearings of the tribunal, the PTI candidate was fined twice for failure to appear before the tribunal.

Additionally, then Peshawar High Court (PHC) chief justice Dost Muhammad Khan had taken notice of the disenfranchisement of women in several polling stations of the said constituency last year.

The high court had stayed the announcement of election results and ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan to hold a fresh election in all polling stations where women were stopped from casting votes.

On September 17, on the petition of Imran Khattak, the Supreme Court had set aside that order.

Out of the total 323,572 votes polled in the constituency in the by-elections, 78,963 were accepted and 1,392 rejected. Imran had bagged 48,043 votes while Daud had received 27,569.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 31^st, 2014.