NA deputy speaker moves top court against election tribunal’s order to deseat him

ISLAMABAD : National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Khan Suri on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court, challenging the verdict of a Balochistan High Court (BHC) election tribunal that nullified his election.

The petition was filed by Advocate Naeem Bukhari on behalf of Suri.

It said the deputy speaker could not be blamed for irregularities in the elections.

“The tribunal did not consider the facts of the matter,” the petition added.

It urged the apex court to declare the tribunal’s verdict as null and void and fix the case for hearing tomorrow (Wednesday).

Last week, BHC’s election tribunal had declared the election of Suri as null and void over vote-rigging and ordered re-election in the NA-265 (Quetta II) constituency.

However, he remained eligible to contest by-elections and had seven days to appeal the judgment at the Supreme Court.

Suri, who was elected to the NA in last year’s general elections and later won the deputy speaker’s seat, was disqualified by the tribunal headed by Justice Abdullah Baloch, on the petition of rival candidate Nawabzada Lashkari Raisani of the Balochistan National Party (BNP).

His election victory was challenged by Raisani, accusing him of rigging the vote.

“The election tribunal has ordered re-election in the constituency by nullifying the previous result,” Riaz Ahmed, the legal counsel of the Raisani, informed reporters after the announcement of the ruling.

According to him, a total of 114,000 votes were cast in his constituency out of which a huge number of votes were declared invalid.

“The election was rigged brazenly and 65,000 votes were not verified,” the lawyer, continued.

During the court hearings, the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) had submitted a report on the orders of the tribunal, which suggested it could not verify more than 52,000 votes cast in 2018 poll.

Source: Express Tribune