Apex court rejects review petition against Khawaja Asif in NA-110 poll rigging case

The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday rejected the review petition filed by PTI’s candidate Usman Dar against PML-N leader Khawaja Asif in NA-110 election rigging case.

A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar heard the case and maintained an earlier decision in the favour of Asif.

Disposing off the petition, the chief justice observed that presenting 10 witnesses in one’s favour was not enough to declare an election outlawed.

Justice Nisar said that the people presented as witnesses could be either supporters or voters of the said petitioner, so they could not be declared impartial.

The chief justice further said that unattested votes could not be eliminated from counting. How can one examine that how the seals of polling bags were broken, he raised a question.

Justice Nisar also said that Dar failed to present himself before the election tribunal despite several summons. “He did not turn up before the tribunal even when he was fined. To be there for cross questioning was a legal requisite,” he added.

Earlier in Nov 2016, the apex court had rejected a petition challenging his election from the NA-110 (Sialkot) constituency.

The minister had bagged 92,484 votes, against his main rival Usman Dar’s 71,573 votes during the May 2013 general elections.

NA-110 (Sialkot) is one of the four constituencies — apart from NA-122 (Lahore), NA-125 (Lahore), and NA-154 (Lodhran) — which remained the focus of the PTI’s attack in their campaign to establish rigging in the 2013 elections.

Source: Dawn