KARACHI: Seven more contestants of the Feb 8 general elections — two independents backed by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and five belonging to the Jamaat-i-Islami — on Tuesday challenged the results of two National Assembly (NA) and five Sindh Assembly constituencies in Karachi before the election tribunals.

All the seven seats had won by candidates belonging to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan in the elections.

PTI’s Alamgir Khan and Aftab Jahangir submitted that they had contested the Feb 8 general elections from NA-236 (Karachi East-II) and NA-244 (Karachi West-I), respectively, as independent candidates after their party lost its electoral symbol.

They cited the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), provincial election commissioner, returning officers (ROs) concerned, candidates elected from the said constituencies and others as respondents.

Petitioners ask tribunals to set aside ‘fraudulent’ results of two NA and five PA seats and declare them winners

They contended that the Form-45s, obtained by their polling agents from the presiding officers at all the polling stations of the constituencies in question, clearly reflected that they had secured highest votes and win with big leads over their rival candidates.

However, they alleged that the respondents had robbed them of their mandate given by the people as their votes were extensively reduced through forgery of Form-45s and Form-47s.

They said that MQM-P’s candidates Hassan Sabir and Dr Farooq Sattar were declared returned candidates from NA-236 and NA-244, respectively.

The petitioners submitted that initially, they, along with several other contenders, had filed petitions in the Sindh High Court on the subject matter and the SHC had referred the same to the ECP with a direction to pass speaking orders on such complaints after hearing the petitioners.

However, they submitted, the ECP dismissed the same through short orders over jurisdiction issue.

The petitioners asked the tribunals to set aside the impugned results/notifications and declare them as winners.

Five PA seats

Also on Tuesday, the JI challenged the victory of five MQM-P candidates from PS-104 (Karachi East-VIII), PS-123 (Karachi Central-II), PS-124 (Karachi Central-III), PS-126 (Karachi Central-V) and PS-128 (Karachi Central-VII) constituencies.

JI’s Junaid Mukati challenged the victory of Mohammad Daniyal from PS-104, Mohammad Akbar impugned the victory of Abdul Waseem from PS-123, Mohammad Ahmed filed a petition against returned candidate Abdul Basit from PS-124, Nusratullah approached the tribunal to get Mohammad Iftikhar Alam de-seated from PS-126 and Wajihuddin challenged the victory of Taha Ahmed Khan from PS-128.

Citing the ECP, the ROs and others as respondents, all the five JI aspirants submitted that as per Form-45s, they had easily won the constituencies in question, but the results were fraudulently changed and the petitioners were shown runners-up in the impugned Form-47s.

The petitioners asked the tribunals to overturn the victory of rival candidates of the MQM-P and issue directives to the respondents to notify them as returned candidates.

Earlier, PTI-Sindh president Haleem Adil Sheikh and Karachi president Khurram Sher Zaman had filed identical petitions challenging the results of NA-238 (Karachi East-VI) and NA-241 (Karachi South-III) before the election tribunals.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2024