Supreme Court rejects PTI candidate's appeal against repolling in NA 75 Daska

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Friday rejected the appeal of the PTI candidate against the repolling in NA 75 Daska and ordered to hold re-polling in the constituency on April 10, Geo News reported.

A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Umer Ata Bandial, heard the petition of PTI candidate Ali Asjad Malhi, challenging the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) order of February 25, 2021, declaring the by-election at NA-75 Daska void and ordering re-polling in the whole constituency.

After the arguments were concluded by all the parties, Justice Umar Ata announced the short order.

During the hearing, Justice Bandial agreed with the ECP that the law and order situation was bad in the constituency.

He remarked that the ECP ordered repolling without hearing the administration but this is not right to say that the contesting parties did not get an equal chance.

Violence had marred the NA-75 by-election, which had taken place in February, as firing incidences took the lives of two people and injured a few.

Clashes between PML-N and PTI workers led to the deaths. Both parties had blamed each other for the violence, after which the ECP ordered re-polling in the entire constituency.

On the last hearing, the PML-N had demanded re-polling in 109 'controversial' polling stations, if not the entire constituency.

‘Accept SC verdict’

Reacting to the SC verdict, PTI leader Usman Dar said the party accepted the Supreme Court order wholeheartedly and will not criticise the court like the Opposition does.

“The court is supreme for us,” Dar said.

‘This is Pakistan’s victory’

However, PML-N candidate Nausheen Iftikhar hailed the order and said this is Pakistan’s victory and thanked the people of the area for showing support to her.

“This is also our party’s victory which propagates for respect of vote.”

While reacting to the SC verdict, PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz said that this has once again proved that the Daska people's votes were robbed by the Imran Khan government.

April 10 re-polling suspended

In an earlier hearing, the Supreme Court had suspended the ECP's order to hold re-polling in the constituency on April 10.

The bench had said the court needed more time to decide the case. "At the moment, we are hearing Salman Akram Raja's [the PML-N candidate's lawyer} arguments. We have to hear [the arguments of] other parties to the case apart from Nosheen Ahmed [PML-N candidate]," the court had said.

The apex court had adjourned proceedings of the case for an unspecified period. "The decision of the ECP to hold re-polling stands," Justice Umar Ata Bandial had said. "For the moment, we are postponing the decision to hold it on April 10."