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ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Thursday delayed the National Assembly by-election for NA-75 in Daska which was earlier supposed to be held on April 10.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had ordered re-polling in the constituency after the election was mired with incidents of violence and allegations of rigging. At least two people were killed in firing incident after a clash involving workers of the PTI and PML-N.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan heard a petition filed by the PTI’s candidate from NA-75, Asjad Ali Malhi, in which he requested to suspend the the ECP’s Feb 25 decision to hold a fresh by-election in NA-75.
The bench said the court needed more time to decide the case. The court said it was hearing the arguments by the PML-N Nosheen Ahmed’s lawyer.
The apex court adjourned proceedings of the case for an unspecified period. Justice Umar Ata Bandial said the decision of the ECP to hold re-polling stands but the decision to hold it on April has been postponed.
Earlier, the ECP has rescheduled the NA-75 Sialkot-IV (Daska) re-polls to April 10 in order to conduct a transparent by-election and ensure foolproof election management.
The Punjab government pointed out that the current staff required more time to fully understand the electoral process and situation since the previous staff’s suspension and transfer. Therefore, commission decided to immediately fill the vacant electoral staff positions and reschedule the NA-75 by-polls to April 10
The electoral body had earlier declared the by-poll held on February 19 in the constituency as void and ordered a fresh election on March 18.
The ECP issued a short order, signed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja and four commission members, Justice (retd) Altaf Ibrahim Qureshi, Justice (retd) Mrs Irshad Qaisar, Nisar Ahmed Durrani and Shah Muhamad Jatoi.
The order was issued after hearing of a case filed by PML-N candidate Syeda Nosheen Iftikhar for verification of 23 missing polling stations’ results. Ali Asjad Malhi was the candidate of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
The ECP said the election in the constituency had not been conducted in a transparent manner, incidents of murders, firing and injuries, bad law and order situation and other circumstances led to the whole process being doubtful.
