SHC seeks ECP’s comments on plea against recount of votes in PS-112

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday directed the Election Commission of Pakistan to file comments on a petition against its order with regard to recount of votes of 26 polling stations of the provincial assembly constituency PS-112 Keamari.

The high court also continued with its interim order suspending the ECP’s order with regard to recount of votes of 26 polling stations of the provincial assembly constituency.

The interim order had come on a petition filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed MPA Sirbuland Khan against the ECP order of recounting of votes of 26 polling stations of the constituency and issuance of Form 49.

A counsel for the petitioner, Ali Tahir, submitted that Khan had already been declared the returned candidate from the constituency and he had also taken oath as a Sindh Assembly member.

He submitted that the ECP, despite issuance of the official notification, had directed the returning officer to recount the votes of 26 polling stations of PS-112, including rejected votes, in the presence of the petitioner and other contesting candidates in accordance with the law and prepare the Form 49 accordingly.

The counsel submitted that the petitioner had no efficacious remedy except to approach the court for reasons that against an order passed under the section 8 of the Election Act, no remedy power was provided to the election tribunal constituted for such purposes.

He submitted that the ECP had no jurisdiction to recount the votes after consolidation of results. The high court was requested to set aside the ECP order and restrain it from passing any new notification after recounting of votes.

The returning officer of the PS-112 filed comments submitting that recounting of votes in 26 polling stations had been made under which 3,216 votes of Pakistan Peoples Party candidate Asif Khan were increased to 4,156 and 6,962 votes of the PTI-backed independent candidate were reduced to 618, resulting in the victory of the PPP’s candidate.

A counsel for the ECP sought time to file comments on the petition. A division bench of the high court headed by SHC Chief Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi directed the ECP to file comments on the petition. The bench continued the interim order suspending the operation of the impugned order of the ECP till the next hearing.