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ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has rescheduled the NA-75 Daska by-election which will now be held on April 10.
The ECP had earlier ordered re-election in the entire constituency on March 18 after dubious results of the by-election. Earlier on Wednesday, the Supreme Court rejected a plea to hold re-polling in the entire constituency.
A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial and consisting of Justice Sajjad Ali Shah and Justice Yahya Afridi heard an appeal filed by PTI candidate Ali Asjad Malhi seeking suspension of the election commission’s re-election order.
The counsel for the PTI candidate argued that the election commission went beyond its authority to order re-election in the constituency on March 18. He sought the court’s order for suspension of the ECP decision till the next hearing of the case.
Justice Bandial observed that the hearing could be completed before the polling day. The court asked the counsel to give his arguments on the jurisdiction of the election commission. The court adjourned further hearing of the matter till Tuesday, March 16 adding that the petition for the restraining order will also be heard on the same day.
It may be noted that the commissioner, deputy commissioner (DC), RPO, DPO and two DSPs had been removed over the directives of the election commission. It has also been decided to change the polling staff of the 21 stations where irregularities were reported during the polls.
On February 25, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had ordered re-polling at all polling stations of NA-75 Sialkot-Daska over falsified results, allegations of rigging and violence.
