Chief election commissioner questions the plea’s legal form and the commission’s powers once results are compiled, but seeks a detailed report.
ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has issued a notice to the returning officer for the NA-77 Gujranwala by-election and sought a detailed report on the Pakistan Markazi Muslim League’s (PMML) rigging petition, keeping the party’s challenge alive even as the chief election commissioner questioned how much the commission can still do now that results have been compiled.
A three-member bench headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja heard the petition filed by PMML candidate Qazi Muhammad Ibrahim Gujjar at an initial hearing, according to the party.
An uphill first hearing
Raja observed at the outset that the petition had not been filed in proper legal form. The commission’s special secretary then told the bench that the constituency’s results had already been compiled, prompting the chief election commissioner to ask what authority remained with the commission after results were finalised.
The bench nonetheless decided to issue a notice to the returning officer and seek a detailed response, a step that keeps the complaint on the commission’s docket rather than disposing of it at the first sitting.
PMML put before the bench
Gujjar’s counsel told the commission the party had concrete evidence of rigging, including an affidavit from a presiding officer admitting that bogus votes had been cast. The Lahore Times has not seen the affidavit.
The lawyer said the returning officer had issued 20 books of ballot papers but that a presiding officer had received fewer than the prescribed number, and that the candidate was neither issued a notice nor given a chance to present evidence while results were being compiled. He also told the bench that several government officials had visited the constituency during the campaign.
In its written application, the party asked the commission to verify Forms 45 and 47 and all other election records, to hold back the winner’s notification until the inquiry is complete and to order a recount of all votes, according to a report in Ummat. That is a wider demand than the recount at 50 polling stations the party sought at its press conference earlier this week.
Sindhu vows to see it through
Speaking to reporters after the hearing alongside Gujjar and other leaders, PMML President Khalid Masood Sindhu said the party had placed evidence of rigging and the use of government machinery before the commission.
He said the party lodged a complaint on polling day that went unanswered, and repeated its claim that its candidate had secured more than 24,000 votes in the count from 283 polling stations, where it had identified specific stations with irregularities. He also referred to a federal minister’s visit to the constituency by government helicopter.
“We will pursue this case against electoral rigging and take it to its logical conclusion,” Sindhu said, days after he demanded an apology from Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz over her remarks linking the party to banned groups.
The provisional Form-47 count from all 333 polling stations gave PML-N’s Rashid Bashir Virk 43,365 votes against 30,218 for Gujjar, a margin of 13,147 on a turnout of about 15.6%, as The Lahore Times reported. The PML-N says the result reflects public support for its governance, and Punjab’s information minister has accused PMML supporters of stamping ballots in front of election staff, a claim the party denies.
The law the commission is weighing
The chief election commissioner’s question goes to the heart of the case. Under Section 95(5) of the Elections Act 2017, a returning officer may order a recount before results are consolidated if a candidate applies in writing and the margin is less than 5% of votes polled or 10,000 votes, whichever is less, or if the officer considers the request not unreasonable.
With roughly 81,000 votes cast, 5% would be about 4,050 votes, well below the 13,147 margin in NA-77. That leaves the PMML relying on proving specific irregularities rather than on the closeness of the contest.
Section 9 of the Act separately allows the commission to declare a poll void at particular polling stations or across a constituency if grave illegalities materially affected the result. Once a winner is notified in the official gazette, disputes ordinarily move to an election tribunal through an election petition, which must be filed within 45 days of the notification.
A crowded week for the commission
The case runs alongside the ECP’s own proceedings over campaign conduct. Federal Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, Virk, MPA Qudsia Batool and others are due before the commission on Nov 12 over Tarar’s helicopter visit to a campaign gathering, which followed a complaint from a PMML official. The ECP said last week that the NA-77 result could be withheld pending its decision on that matter.
The commission must publish the winner’s name in the gazette by Nov 22 under the Act’s 14-day deadline. Whatever the outcome, the dispute is a curtain-raiser for Punjab’s first local government elections since 2015 on Feb 7, where the PMML hopes to build on its second-place showing.
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