NA-122 probe: Tribunal fixes June 17 for final arguments

LAHORE:

Election Tribunal Judge Kazim Ali Malik has fixed June 17 for final arguments on a petition filed by PTI chief Imran Khan, challenging the victory of National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq.

The judge had earlier fixed June 15 for hearing arguments on the supplementary forensic report submitted by NADRA.

NADRA chairman Usman Mubeen had told the tribunal that 99.93 per cent NA-122 constituency votes were valid in light of their statistical expectations. He said that 24, rather than 570 votes, were cast by people outside the constituency.

Khan’s counsel Anees Hashmi objected to NADRA’s verification process. “The court had ordered NADRA to verify votes through CNIC numbers on the counterfoils. It is not NADRA’s job to add digits in the CNIC numbers that were either invisible or illegible. NADRA’s should have just examined the CNIC numbers, instead of making changes to the record,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 16^th, 2015.