Lower Dir-II constituency: High court suspends re-poll order

Directs ECP to submit written reply in case before July 2.

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday suspended Election Commission of Pakistan’s orders of re-polls in PK-95, Lower Dir-II, a constituency where women were reportedly barred from casting ballots during the May 7 by-election.

A two-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Mazhar Miankhel and Justice Irshad Qaiser issued the directives, staying the poll scheduled for July 12 and asking the ECP to file a written reply before July 2.

Jamaat-e-Islami’s successful candidate Azazul Mulk Afkari’s counsel Ghulam Mohiuddin Malik told the court that the ECP took notice of reports regarding women being denied the right to vote on election day and ordered re-polling in the constituency.

Malik denied the accusations of an agreement between candidates over the controversy and said that not a single woman was barred from exercising her fundamental right.

“No one contacted the ECP regarding the issue on May 7,” Malik added. The counsel said women have traditionally never turned up at polling stations in the region and statistics from previous elections speak for that. “Those women who recorded statements before the ECP did not belong in Dir but some NGO in Islamabad,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 12^th, 2015.