ECP member contracts corona

ISLAMABAD: A senior member of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Mrs Justice Irshad Qaiser (R) participation has become difficult in tomorrow’s hearing of petition filed by Miftah Ismail of the PML-N against the counting of votes in bye-polls of NA-249 Karachi, held Thursday last.

The ECP member has contracted coronavirus last month and since then she is in quarantine. Her husband Qaiser Ali died of coronavirus in third week of last month and since then she hasn’t turned up at the Commission. Highly-placed sources of the ECP told The News here Sunday that despite her absence, the Commission with its chairman Raja Sikandar Sultan in chair and three other members of the Commission will hear the petition tomorrow (Tuesday) since the required quorum for the Commission meeting would be complete with the presence of its four members including the chairman. The returning officer for the bye-election who declared PPP candidate Qadir Khan Mandokhail winner has also been summoned by the Commission for the hearing.

The sources said Miftah Ismail is reaching Islamabad today (Monday) along with documents as evidence against the votes counting, that declared him runner-up in the polls contest.

Interestingly, his arch-rival Qadir Khan Mandokhail of the PPP is travelling from Karachi to Islamabad by the same flight today. Miftah has engaged a prominent lawyer Salman Akram Raja to plead his case before the ECP. Raja was also counsel of PML-N MNA Nosheen Iftikhar, who had to face similar circumstances in her contest in elections in February this year.

Later she not only won her case in the ECP but also in the Supreme Court, and got elected with vast majority in another contest last month. She has already taken oath of membership. Miftah Ismail while challenging the count by the returning officer pointed out several irregularities in the process of polling. He has demanded recounting and forensic audit of more than 30 polling stations polled votes along their results, the sources pointed out. It is unlikely the ECP would take decision on the petition in one sitting that would be commencing Tuesday morning.