Ayaz Sadiq out as tribunal orders repolling in NA-122

LAHORE: Election Tribunal Judge Kazim Malik on Saturday de-seated National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq after nullifying his election from NA-122 and directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to hold a re-election in the constituency.
Ayaz Sadiq had defeated the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan in the May 2013 general elections, but his victory was challenged by the PTI chief in the tribunal.
The tribunal also ordered re-elections in the PP-147 constituency from where Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Mohsin Latif, nephew of Kalsoom Nawaz, had won the election by defeating PTI’s Shoaib Siddiqui.
The tribunal announced its verdict on both election petitions as previously it had linked both petitions with each other.
NA-122 (Lahore) was one of the four constituencies in which the PTI had demanded a vote audit and re-elections through election petitions. The other constituencies included NA-125 (Lahore), NA-110 (Sialkot) and NA-154 (Lodhran). Previously, an election tribunal had also declared the election in NA-125 null and void.
The Lahore police had deployed at least 340 policemen and seven police reserves at the ECP Punjab office to maintain the law and order situation. The police had also arranged water cannons and teargas shells to disperse political workers in case of any untoward incident, as a large number of supporters of the PML-N and PTI had gathered at the venue. They were chanting slogans in support of their leaders. The situation remained tense for almost nine hours. The decision of the tribunal was expected at 10:00am, but it was released at around 7:00pm, the reasons for the delay only known to the tribunal judge Kazim Malik.
The PML-N and PTI workers kept exchanging hot words with the police and tried to attack each other by removing the barricades and barbed wires. Meanwhile, some unidentified pickpockets stole the wallet of MNA Pervez Malik for outside the ECP office.
On May 9, 2015, the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) had submitted its report before the tribunal, saying that only 73,478 votes polled in NA-122 could be verified. It also said the fingerprints on the counter-foils of only 40 percent of the total polled votes correctly matched with the fingerprint data of the registered voters, held with Nadra. A total of 93,582 votes polled did not have verified thumb impressions on counterfoils, the report added.
The tribunal announced the judgment two years after the filing of the election petition by Imran Khan.
Online adds: Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said he would go into appeal against the verdict of the Election Tribunal.
Talking to reporters in Lahore, he said he respects the tribunal’s verdict but has reservations about the basis on which the election has been declared null and void.
He said there is a reference to electoral irregularities in the verdict and he cannot be held responsible for this. “We would challenge the Election Tribunal’s verdict in the Supreme Court,” he said, adding, “We have a court for expressing our reservations.”
Muhammad Saleh Zaafir adds from Islamabad: In a guarded reaction Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has termed the verdict of the Election Tribunal in NA-122 polls as “part of legal process and all the political parties should respect it.”
In a brief message, the prime minister has made it clear that his Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) would exercise its constitutional right to seek legal remedy.
In the meantime, highly placed sources told The News that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is also president of the PML-N, has asked his legal team to study the judgment of the tribunal so that the aggrieved member of the National Assembly should knock at the door of the superior court to obtain due relief.
Sardar Ayaz Sadiq called Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif immediately after the announcement of the judgment of the tribunal on Saturday evening and shared his ‘information’ about the verdict and sought his guidance on the subject.
Prime Minister Nawaz was satisfied to the extent that no allegation of rigging has been established in the process of polls as against the campaign by his opponents. He has asked Sardar Ayaz Sadiq to challenge the verdict of the tribunal at the earliest since it is his constitutional right. The prime minister was confident that Sardar Ayaz Sadiq would ultimately prove victorious.