Notices issued in Saad Rafique’s vote recount petition

LAHORE: A Lahore High Court bench, headed by Justice Mamoon Rashid Sheikh, asked PTI chief Imran Khan, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the Returning Officer concerned to respond on a petition filed by PML-N’s Khawaja Saad Rafique.

The petitioner called for a vote recount in NA-131.

Khawaja Saad Rafique had challenged the order of returning officer, who had dismissed his application for a vote recount.
According to the petitioner, a large number of irregularities had been witnessed by him and his polling agents but no legal action was taken in this regard.

His polling agents, he contended, were not provided Form 45 and they were forcibly ejected from the counting process.

He asserted that although he had won the election by securing a clear margin, the provisional result for his constituency was deliberately withheld to manipulate the actual vote count.

According to him, presiding officers of various polling stations had gone missing and no returning officer or ECP representative was willing to disclose relevant information to the petitioner after the polling on July 25 and the next day.

Rafiq pointed out that he had filed an application for vote recount on July 26 and a notice in this regard was issued by the returning officer concerned on July 27.

He said that he was not in possession of the consolidated results before filing his application for recount.

He said that had fulfilled all legal requirements prescribed in Section 95 of the Election Act, necessitating the returning officer to order the recount.

He asserted that the returning officer had dismissed his application without merit, violating provisions of Section 95 of the Election Act.

He also requested the court to set aside the returning officer’s order dismissing his application for vote recount.

Plea against Sanaullah

A Lahore High Court (LHC) bench took up a petition for hearing on August 6 that accused former provincial law minister Rana Sanaullah of using derogatory language against Islam, urging the court to withhold the notification about his electoral success.

The court asked all respondents to present arguments on August 6.

Notices were issued by Justice Shahid Karim of the LHC.

The petition was filed by Dr Nisar Ahmed, who lost the election for NA-106, Faisalabad. He argued that the former provincial law minister had violated the Constitution by allegedly attempting to defame Islam.

“He is no ‘Sadiq’ and ‘Ameen’ under Articles 62 and 63 of Constitution,” the petitioner argued.

Anyone, he asserted, using such language against Islam should not be an elected member of the National Assembly and run state affairs.

He requested the court to order the authorities concerned to withhold the notification declaring the defendant successful in the election and he should be disqualified for defaming Islam.

Source: Express Tribune