Irregularities in NA-125: Tribunal orders re-election in 60 days

Saad Rafique had defeated PTI’s Hamid Khan in the constituency in 2013 general elections

LAHORE:

In a significant development, an election tribunal on Monday declared the election of Khawaja Saad Rafique, the incumbent railways minister, in NA-125 (Lahore-VIII) null and void and ordered re-election in the constituency within 60 days.

Rafique had won the seat in the 2013 general elections by polling 123,416 votes against 84,495 votes of his rival Hamid Khan of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf (PTI). The latter, however, challenged Rafique’s victory in the tribunal, alleging the vote was massively rigged in favour of Rafique.

The tribunal also accepted the petition of PTI’s Hafiz Farhat Abbas and ordered re-election on Punjab Assembly constituency PP-155. PML-N’s Mian Naseer Ahmed had won the seat in the 2013 general elections. Tribunal Judge Javaid Rashid Mehboobi gave these verdicts while observing massive irregularities in the election record and election process of both the constituencies.

It was mandatory for the presiding officer (PO) of each polling station to affix his signature and thumb impression on each form (XIV), which deals with counting of votes but more than half of the forms (XIV) out of 265 polling stations had no thumb impressions and signatures of concerned POs.



The tribunal observed that the returning officer (RO) for NA-125, Khalid Bhatti, had compiled results on the basis of unverified form (XIV) which were in a large number.

The judge specifically mentioned in his verdict that the POs, ROs and polling staff did not work properly and owing to their negligence, irregularities emerged in the polling stations. The election staff did not follow the law and committed illegalities, he noted. The judge, however, noted that neither planned rigging nor any sort of connivance between the candidates and election staff was proved.

The judge also directed district returning officer to conduct an inquiry and take legal action against the ROs of the constituencies as well as POs and the election staff. He directed that honorarium enjoyed by the POs, ROs and polling staff be also taken back as punishment.

Earlier, in December 2014, a retired sessions judge and the National Forensic Science Agency’s (NFSA) chairman – as Commission No 1 and No 2 – had submitted their reports to the tribunal after inspecting the election material.

Sources said form XIV was found only at three out of total 10 selected polling stations. At the remaining polling stations, forms XIV were blank and had no mention as to how many votes were cast and how many were rejected while they also did not bear signatures of POs.

Rafique claims innocence

Saad Rafique said his party would decide whether to challenge the tribunal decision in the Supreme Court or contest re-election. He clarified that the tribunal judge had not disqualified him from contesting the election. “The judge awarded punishment to my voters for the negligence of RO and PO and other election staff,” he claimed.

Rafique said that the tribunal found irregularities in only seven polling stations which did not constitute rigging. “Hamid Khan could not provide any substantial evidence before the tribunal to prove rigging,” he added.

“The judge has said that there were doubts in seven polling stations even if results of those seven polling stations are not included my overall lead remains intact,” he said, adding that he was not satisfied with the tribunal decision.

Talking to media, PTI’s counsel Mian Muhammad Hussain Chotya claimed that the results of the 2013 elections were changed after the speech of PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif. He also alleged that RO Khalid Ahmed Bhatti took bribe of Rs2,00,00,000 in cash as well as a vehicle and a plot to ensure Rafique’s victory.

The ruling PML-N is likely to move the Supreme Court against the tribunal’s decision, sources in the PML-N told The Express Tribune. Senior party members said the top party leadership has conveyed to Rafique that he should not have reacted in haste after the tribunal decision.

“However, party chief Nawaz Sharif has not given any instructions so far. Legal experts of the party will be consulted on the matter,” a senior party member told The Express Tribune.


Published in The Express Tribune, May 5^th, 2015.