ISLAMABAD: On Monday, a three-judge Supreme Court bench will consider a plea that aims to declare the general elections held on February 8th invalid.
Judge Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Mussarat Hilali will be on the bench under Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa.
The federal government and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) have been named as respondents in the petition.
Ali Khan, a citizen, petitioned the court to hold new elections in 30 days. The argument asks for general elections to be conducted under judicial supervision in order “to ensure fairness, transparency and accountability.”
A stay order on the new government’s formation until the dispute is settled is also requested in the petition.Ed.
In the February 8 general elections, 92 seats were won by independent candidates backed by the PTI, 75 by the PML-N, and 54 by the PPP. Allegations of poll fraud have been made by defeated candidates as well as by a number of political parties.
The Sindh High Court (SHC) issued petitions to the Election Commission the day before challenging the results of 58 Karachi and Hyderabad constituencies.
The SHC has forwarded to the Election Commission the applications of Syed Abdul Rasheed, the candidate of Jamaat-e-Islami from PS 106; Raja Azhar, the candidate of the PTI from PS 95, who is petitioning against Riyaz Haider, the independent candidate of the PTI, Farooq Awan, from constituency NA 250; and Irfanullah Marwat, the GDA, who is petitioning against Saeed Ghani’s victory.
The SHC ordered the electoral watchdog to review the applicants’ Form 45 or 47 records, hear the complaints from all parties, and make a decision by February 22 in accordance with the law. The removal of any irregularity detected has been ordered by the court. The petitions were resolved by the court.
demonstrations against ‘rigging’
Protests against suspected election tampering have been widespread in Balochistan, Sindh, and other regions of the nation since 2024.
In order to demand recounts and contest the results that have been declared in Balochistan, political groups such as the National Party, PPP, JUI, BAP, BNP-Mengal, PkMAP, and PkNAP organized protest demonstrations that blocked main thoroughfares and district returning offices.
The NP’s central commander, Mir Kabeer Muhammad Shahi, declared during a protest in front of the deputy commissioner’s office in Quetta, “Our protest will continue until justice is served.”
The BNP-M, PkMAP, the Hazara Democratic Party (HDP), and other political parties declared coordinated protests against the purported election manipulation in the province.
In an effort to put more pressure on the Pakistani Election Commission to reevaluate the results regarding their constituencies, they also set up a united protest camp.
PkMAP’s central head, Abdul Rahim Ziaratwal, claimed, “The ROs stole our democratic right.”
“Record rigging in the province,” according to him, was the fault of the ECP and the ROs.
Awami National Party, JUI, and a few other political parties blocked the important roads that connected Balochistan to Karachi, Sindh, Punjab, and other regions of the nation.
Serious accusations were also made by the PTI, which said it had lost nine provincial assembly seats and three seats in the National Assembly.
In this context, the major parties have also declared a coordinated state-wide walkout.
Political parties in Sindh also demonstrated against suspected rigging. The JUI blocked provincial road connections, the PTI held a protest outside the ECP headquarters, while Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) organized sit-ins throughout Karachi.
The leaders and workers of the JUI blocked the route that links Sindh and Balochistan, alleging that the polls on February 8 were manipulated to favor the PPP. They threatened to carry out more protests in the event that an impartial vote recount was not carried out.
At eight key intersections in Karachi, the JI staged sit-ins to demand that the ECP reject the “fake results” of the general elections.
In the meantime, the capital police in Islamabad enforced Section 144, which was in effect at the time, and threatened to take legal action against any unlawful assembly of individuals.
High courts contest election results
Several candidates supported by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) filed over a dozen petitions in high court contesting the results of the elections in their individual constituencies, as declared by the relevant returning officers (ROs).
The majority of the election challenges were filed with the Lahore High Court (LHC), two candidates supported by the PTI filed an appeal against the results with the Islamabad High Court (IHC), and at least three petitions were submitted with the Sindh High Court (SHC).
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Quaid Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz, as well as Aleem Khan, the president of the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP), were the targets of challenges in the Lahore constituency.
PTI-supported Ali Bukhari and Shoaib Shaheen filed petitions at the IHC contesting the NA-47 and NA-48 constituencies’ results in the federal capital, respectively. Arsalan Khalid moved the SHC against the NA-248 results, and PTI Sindh President Haleem Adil Sheikh moved the SHC against the NA-238 results.
In order to deny the Returning Officers (ROs) their right to see the consolidation of election results, the petitions filed in the LHC asked the courts to invalidate the Form-47 that the ROs had written while they were not there.
The runners-up argued that they were forcibly prevented from seeing the result consolidation process by police officers acting at the whim of various constituency ROs. Their removal from the ROs offices was a flagrant breach of the impartial electoral procedure.
Nawaz Sharif (NA-130), Maryam Nawaz (NA-119), Khawaja Asif (NA-71 Sialkot), Hamza Shehbaz (NA-118), Atta Tarar (NA-127), Saiful Maluk Khokhar (NA-126), Aleem Khan (NA-117), and other candidates’ victories were contested by the petitioners.
The PTI-backed independent candidates for the five provincial assembly seats contested the results of PP-169, PP-53, PP-47, PP-62, and PP-46 on the same grounds that they were forced out of the ROs offices and denied the opportunity to observe the consolidation of the election results.
In the event that Salman Akram Raja, the independent candidate supported by the PTI, or his representative is not present, LHC Justice Ali Baqar Najafi has ordered the relevant authorities to refrain from acting further on the outcomes of NA-128.
Reporters on the IHC grounds in Islamabad were informed by PTI-backed Shoaib Shaheen that the applications were filed along with a request for an expedited hearing. “Ali Bukhari and I submitted petitions today. We have asked the registrar’s office to set up a hearing for right away,” he stated.
With 69,699 votes, independent candidate Raja Khuram Shehzad Nawaz was victorious in the NA-48 Islamabad-III election, as per the declared results. Bukhari, however, insisted he was winning in the first results, but 59,851 votes later, he was proclaimed the runner-up.
Shaheen had denounced the NA-47 results, in which Tariq Fazal Chaudhry of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was pronounced the winner. Shaheen said that “pressuring the returning officers” was the fault of the ruling class.
“You are reliving the crime you did in the past today. The judiciary is now the only source of hope,” he declared. The PTI’s electoral emblem, the bat, was taken away by them. My opponents only received 40,000 votes overall, while I had a lead of over 50,000.
Haleem Adil Sheikh claimed in the SHC case that he had garnered over 71,000 votes in the NA-238 constituency; nevertheless, Sadiq Iftikhar, the candidate for the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), was deemed successful in altering the results in Form 47.
In his appeal, Arslan Khalid argued that Form 45 showed he had received 65,000 votes in the NA-248 constituency; however, Form 47 showed the RO in question declaring MQM’s Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui the victor. He asked the judge to put the Form 47 result on hold.
Nawaz also contested the NA-15 Mansehra-II election results. Nawaz said in a writ petition that snowfall was making it difficult to communicate in a number of Manshera locations. The request stated that even though the results were declared, more than 125 polling places failed to submit Form 45.
In the meanwhile, the ECP mandated re-elections in the polling places in PK-90, Kohat, NA-88, Khushab, PS-18, Ghotki, and PK-88 where the ballots were stolen or destroyed. A press statement stated that the results of the re-polling would be made public on February 15th.
