After accepting Imran Khan’s application on Monday, the election tribunal ordered the opening of sealed bags containing votes cast in the NA 122 constituency for verification.
According to the British Broadcasting Corporation, the tribunal head, Judge Kazim Ali Malik, ordered the scrutiny of votes in NA-122 (Lahore-V) by a local tribunal under retired judge Ghulam Hussain Awan which will file a report within 15 days.
Earlier Judge Malik rejected Ayaz Sadiq’s appeal to not open the ballot bags.
Imran Khan’s lawyer told the BBC that “a lot of facts will come forth” with the inspection of the documents. It will be made clear if all the polling stations had forms 14, 15 and 16, and whether there were ballot papers or not.
Moreover, signatures and thumbprint impressions of counterfoils will be checked, he said.
A news agency reported that the election tribunal has ordered scrutiny of votes through verification of thumbprint impressions on the counterfoils of ballot papers by NADRA.
National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq was elected from this constituency on a PML-N ticket in the 2013 polls after polling as many as 93,389 votes. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan, who got 84, 517 votes, had challenged the results.
Imran Khan earlier this week sought the resignation of the NA speaker till the completion of the verification of votes.
NA-122 is one of the four constituencies where the PTI had sought a recount and verification of voters’ thumb impressions.
A huge crowd of PML-N supporters was present outside the election commission office, but no PTI supporter was in sight. A contingent of police was also present.
Ayaz Sadiq’s lawyers and son, while talking to the media outside the election commission office, said that they respect the judgment, but Imran Khan does not want swift vote recheck. Imran is deliberately delaying the whole process of the verification of votes, they said.
Barrister Asjid Saeed, counsel for Sadiq, said the tribunal orders’ negated the ECP directives for inspection of record in NA-122. “The election commission and tribunal orders were identical and now which order will be implemented,” he questioned.
He claimed that Imran’s election petition was not maintainable as it lacked evidence and affidavits annexed with the plea were not sworn in accordance with law.
Ayaz Sadiq’s son, criticised the PTI chief over the delay in the inspection of the record process. After the commission orders’, Imran first expressed no confidence on the returning officer and then objected to the presence of other candidate’s representatives during the process which resulted in the delay, he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 9th, 2014.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ