Pakistan Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the request to suspend the order of Election Commission of Pakistan regarding re-election in NA-75 Daska constituency. The case filed by the PTI Candidate for the NA-75 seat was heard by a three-member bench headed by Justice Omar Atul Bandial.
Justice Bundial said that the Pakistan Election Commission is a constitutional body. The court said that the Supreme Court will continue hearing the case but re-election will be held at all costs. The judge said that the Supreme Court respects the Election Commission. He said that the bench now has to decide whether the voting should be held in the entire constituency or at the 20 polling stations of NA-75, which are engulfed in controversies.
Order for re-election on grounds of violence
Meanwhile, counsel for PTI candidate Ali Asjad Mali told the court that there are 360 polling stations in Daska and there are more than 400,000 registered voters in the constituency. He said that PML-N candidate Nausheen Iftikhar had complained to the Election Commission that he did not get results from 23 polling stations.
For this, Justice Bandiyal asked whether the PTI candidate got the results of the remaining 340 polling stations? The PTI counsel replied that the Returning Officer told him that the results of 14 constituencies were missing. PTI lawyer Shahzad Shaukat said that the Election Commission ordered re-election at all polling stations on the basis of violence in the constituency.
‘Which election is free from violence?’
During the hearing, Justice Bandiyal reiterated that in the 2018 elections, the army was deployed to maintain peace, which was a commendable step. He said that it was a mistake not to deploy the army during the Daska elections. The Election Commission relied on the police to maintain peace. In this regard, the Election Commission counsel told the court that the IG has not yet submitted its report. At this, the court asked why the Election Commission did not issue a contempt notice to the IG for the failure.
The Election Commission counsel told the court that according to a report by Interior Security, the elections in Daska were not peaceful. According to the report, terror had spread in the constituency through firing and violence. On this, Justice Naqvi asked which elections were free from such incidents? Please tell that the court has adjourned the hearing till March 19.
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