PESHAWAR: Suspending the notification of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Friday stayed repolling on 354 polling stations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The ECP had ordered re-polling in these polling stations owing to irregularities in the local bodies elections held on May 30.The court directed the ECP to submit a written reply before the next hearing in the election petitions filed against the re-polling. The bench issued the stay order in election petitions of various candidates including Lal Badshah from Swabi and others, who had won the election on these polling stations, but the ECP on the recommendations of the District Returning Officers (DROs) issued notification of re-polling. Lawyers for the petitioners, including Khushdil Khan, Naveed Akhtar, Mauzzam Butt and Malik Salman submitted before the bench that the petitioners had won the elections on various seats, including district councils and tehsil councils, but the ECP did not announce results and issued notification for re-polling. They submitted that there were no hurdles, mismanagement and rigging in these polling stations and ordering re-polling by the ECP was unlawful. On the other hand, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Member Provincial Assembly Zahid Durrani claimed in his petition that the whole election including re-polling on 354 polling stations would be declared null and void as there was massive rigging, fighting and mismanagement in the election particularly in Mardan district. He requested the court to direct the ECP to hold fresh polls under the supervision of the Pakistan Army as fair and free local government elections were not possible without Army’s deployment.
