LAHORE (Staff Report) – An election tribunal on Wednesday dismissed a plea filed by PTI’s Hamid Zaman seeking disqualification of PML-N MNA Riaz Malik in NA-118.
The tribunal judge Muhammad Rashid Qamar, announcing a reserved verdict, said the petitioner failed to prove his allegations of rigging in general elections 2013.
The NADRA report noted around 12,000 votes as unverified while the lead taken by Riaz Malik was over 60,000 votes, he said.
Speaking on the occasion PML-N’s Riaz Malik said that his mandate has been vindicated by the tribunal’s verdict and those leveling allegations of rigging should hang their heads in shame now.
PTI’s Hamid Zaman said that his party has reservations on short order of the tribunal and a strategy will be announced in this regard after detailed verdict.
Responding to a question he hinted at moving Supreme Court of Pakistan against the decision, saying that verdict was contrary to the NADRA report.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Hamid Zaman, who was a runner-up candidate in the constituency, had submitted a complaint with election tribunal alleging that PML-N candidate Riaz Malik practiced unfair means to win in the 2013 general elections.
Upon which, the tribunal ordered National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) to verify the thumb impressions of voters in NA-118 Lahore.
According to the NADRA report electoral rolls of as many as 60 polling stations of the constituency were missing from the ECP record, while many irregularities were also mentioned in the pre-scan report.
The complete electoral record of five polling stations in NA-118 was also not available and 25,000 counter files were also missing, the report added.
On Tuesday, the tribunal reserved verdict after completion of argument by the legal counsels of both parties in the case.
In 2013, PML-N candidate Riaz Malik had bagged 103310 votes while PTI’s Hamid Zaman remained second by getting 43570 votes.
