SHC dismisses plea against transfer of proceedings

Last week, the SHC had suspended ECP's decision to shift the proceedings to the Hyderabad election tribunal

KARACHI:

The Sindh High Court (SHC) dismissed on Tuesday a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader's petition against the Election Commission of Pakistan's (ECP) order to transfer proceedings on the victory of Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah from the election tribunal in Karachi to Hyderabad.

A division bench, comprising justices Munib Akhtar and Ashraf Jahan, was hearing the plea filed by the former chief minister, Syed Ghous Ali Shah, against the transfer of the proceedings against Qaim Ali Shah's victory.

Case history

Last week, the Sindh High Court (SHC) had suspended the ECP's decision to shift the proceedings to the Hyderabad election tribunal.

Ghous Ali Shah had lost the elections on PS-29 to Qaim Ali Shah during the May 2013 general election. In his petition, he said that the election tribunal in Karachi had recorded evidence on his election petition regarding the alleged rigging in the PS-29 election when the high court restrained the tribunal from further proceedings with the matter. Later, the ECP had extended the tenure of all the election tribunals across the country except the one in Karachi, he added.

His lawyer, Aslam Bhutta said that, on March 3, the ECP had passed an order on Qaim Ali Shah's application to transfer the proceedings to the Hyderabad tribunal. This was illegal as no prior notices were issued by the election body to the parties. He also claimed that Qaim Ali Shah was a good friend of the head of the Hyderabad tribunal, Ashfaq Baloch. He pleaded the court to suspend the election commissioner's order for the transfer.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 8^th, 2015.