After recount, Ghous Ali Shah declared poll winner in NA-215

KARACHI:

An election tribunal on Saturday declared Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Ghous Ali Shah as the winner in the National Assembly constituency of Khairpur (NA-215) and overturned the election of Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) candidate Nawab Ali Wassan.

Headed by former Sindh High Court (SHC) judge Zafar Ahmed Khan Sherwani passed the order while allowing the election petition filed by Ghous Ali Shah against Wassan’s election triumph.

Shah had contested last year’s general election on a PML-N ticket, but lost it to Wassan.

He, however, challenged the election results, alleging that the returned candidate had committed illegal practices such as harassing his voters, wrongfully confining the polling staff, snatched and stuffed ballot boxes with bogus votes -- which was verified by the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA).

He claimed that the report of NADRA also supported the allegations of mass rigging as out of 174,645 counterfoils bearing the thumb impressions of the purported voters only 47,291 could be authenticated as belonging to genuine voters.

He also accused former home minister Manzoor Ali Wassan of holding the entire district administration hostage to rig the polls.

The petitioner alleged DSP Muneer Ahmed Phulpoto, who was posted in Karachi, visited Khairpur district and harassed the voters on the polling day. On petitioner’s complaint, the RO sent a letter to the IG but to no avail. The returned candidate on the polling day roamed around with men brandishing deadly weapons and resorted to aerial firing to prevent voters from casting their votes.

They killed Abdul Wahab Morejo and injured Tahir Imtiaz and other workers. An FIR was lodged, but the returned candidate escaped from the anti-terrorism court upon rejection of his pre-arrest bail plea.

Before the tribunal two witnesses, including Safdar Ali Shah and Nawab Khan alias Raju, testified that an armed party led by Munawar Ali Wassan took them away during voting at the polling station in the Middle School Mithri. They said they were kept confined for three days in a godown behind Wassan’s bungalow, where they were beaten before handing them over to the Kotdiji police in connection with false cases. They also produced medical certificates.

The tribunal found that during cross-examination the respondent’s lawyer examined the witnesses at length, but did not find any contradiction in their statements.

The tribunal found that Munawwar Wassan never appeared before the tribunal to deny the allegations therefore it proved that he was an active member of the party on behalf of the returned candidate, who committed the above acts in connivance with the returned candidate.

Wassan’s lawyer rebutted the petitioner’s allegations.

The tribunal observed that on the basis of concrete evidence there is also no doubt that the returned candidate is an influential person being a relative of Manzoor Hussain Wassan, former home minister in the previous government prior to the caretaker set-up in the province.

“That leaves no room to accept the arguments of the learned counsel for the returned candidate that the commission of these illegal acts could be reported to the police by getting registered such FIR by these witnesses,” the head of the tribunal said.

The tribunal ordered: “Due to findings on issue No. 1 that the corrupt practice has been committed by the returned candidate, as well as Munawar Wassan, with his connivance therefore the election of the returned candidate is declared as void under Section 68(d) of the Act and the petitioner being the runner-up is declared as elected under Section 69 of the Act.”

Allowing the election petition, the tribunal directed the ECP to issue a notification in this regard.


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