PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Monday directed the returning officers of several constituencies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to appear before it on Feb 15 for responding to the allegation of changing the results of Feb 8 general elections.

It also sought the response of the Election Commission of Pakistan to the petitions of several PTI-backed independent candidates about the alleged poll rigging.

The orders were issued by a bench consisting of Justice Shakil Ahmad and Justice Syed Arshad Ali during a hearing into petitions filed by PTI-backed candidates Sajid Nawaz, Taimur Saleem Jhagra, Mehmood Jan, Kamran Bangash, Arbab Jahandad, Mohammad Asim, Ali Zaman and Malik Shahab against election results in their respective constituencies.

Lawyers for the petitioners, including Shumail Butt, Ali Gohar Durrani, Qazi Anwar, Syed Sikandar Shah and Ali Azim Afridi, informed the bench that poll results were compiled in the presence of the contesting candidates but the returning officer for PK-78 “went missing” during the results compilation andcouldn’t be reached by contestants.

ECP also asked to respond to petitions of independents

They insisted that the petitioners led during vote counting according to Form 45 issued by the presiding officers of the respective polling stations but that results were later changed and their opponents were declared winner in Form 47 issued by the returning officers.

Justice Ahmad asked counsel for ECP Mohsin Kamran if Form 47 and Form 49 had been issued.

Mr Kamran informed him that Form 49 was issued in several constituencies.

Justice Ali declared that the court couldn’t suspend election results after the issuance of Form 49 by the ECP.

The ECP’s lawyer argued that the court couldn’t hear such petitions under Section 9 of the Election Act, 2017, and Article 225 of the Constitution as the candidates didn’t formally seek vote recounts in their respective constituencies.

Mr Butt insisted that the petitioners didn’t request vote recounts and instead, they called for the release of election results on the basis of Form 45.

Justice Ali observed that the high courts had “little” jurisdiction in such cases.

The counsel for petitioners requested the court to issue stay orders against the notifications of “winning” election candidates.

The court ordered returning officers of the relevant constituencies to appear before it on Feb 15 and respond to the election rigging allegations.

A woman returning officer showed up before the bench.

However, the court observed that it would hear all cases together.

The hearing was later adjourned after the bench directed the ECP to file its response to the petitions in the next two days.

Published in Dawn, February 13th, 2024