LAHORE: With moral and legal victory for securing verdict of the Election Tribunal Punjab for nullifying the results of National Assembly Constituency No 122 (Lahore) PTI Chairman Imran Khan is bound to convince the Supreme Court in the next phase of litigation that the election of the de-seated Sardar Ayaz Sadiq was not transparent, impartial and independent as per election laws. This verdict has thrown out Speaker National Assembly from the House and until and unless this verdict is not suspended by the Apex Court the Speaker has become a stranger for the House.
According to the details of the verdict of the Tribunal the election of the said Constituency has been nullified and further declared as void resulting throwing the Speaker out of the House.
This is second victory of the PTI for knocking down another stalwart of the ruling party PML (N) whereas earlier it had bold out federal Railways minister Khawaja Saad Rafique from NA-125 (Lahore) where PTI candidate and jurist Hamid Khan was his opponent. However on preferring an appeal in the Supreme Court of Pakistan the decision of the Election Tribunal Punjab for de-seating federal railways minister was suspended till final decision of the Apex Court as such the said minister returned to his office and is still continuing in his office. The most interesting news for suspending the verdict of the Tribunal against Kh. Saad Rafique was that the Apex Court suspended the impugned verdict on its very first hearing when even the copy of the judgment of the Election Tribunal Punjab had not been attached with appeal of the federal minister for Railways. In this context it is believed that there are bright chances of the suspension of this verdict whereby the Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz stood deseated and his election declared as nullified and void. A question which arises in the minds of common man and the political pundits is that whether an ordinary citizen can get any order of any provincial High Court or any Election Tribunal or any sentence passed by a High Court suspended in his case from the Supreme Court on the very first date of hearing and that too without issuance of notice to the other party?
It may be remembered that the four National Assembly Constituencies for which PTI demanded recounting included NA.122 and NA.125 (Lahore) NA.110. Sialkot and NA154-Lodhran. Therefore the other two other constituencies for which the legal battle is still continuing between the PTI aggrieved and the PML (N) returned candidates are NA 110- Sialkot and NA-154 Lodhran. The results of these four National Assembly Constituencies had given a jolt to the PTI leadership and it had demanded for the verification of voters’ thumb impressions on the plea that planned rigging had been committed in these Constituencies. It is interesting that for the first time it was Hamid Zaman of PTI candidate from NA-118 who agitated his grievance with full force before the Election Tribunal Punjab and pressed his demand for verification of the thumb impressions of voters. He incurred about 6/7 millions PKR and finally succeeded in the legal battle for it however his opponent Muhammad Riaz of the PML (N) got a stay order for causing delay and the outcome of this National Assembly Constituency is also awaited. As per verdict of the Election Tribunal in NA-122 there were about 23000 votes unstamped, 255 voters cast their double votes and 377 voters did not put their thumb impression on the ballot papers. The most interesting thing for both Imran Khan and Sardar Ayaz Sadiq is that they have accepted the verdict of the Election Tribunal. Sardar Ayaz is of the view that he has some reservations about the verdict which does not mention about rigging in the polling but talked about irregularities and mismanagement. Both are now poised to fight the next round of their legal battle before the Supreme Court which is expected in view of its previous orders to suspend the impugned verdict on the very first hearing to give sigh of relief to Sardar Ayaz who is not member of the National Assembly from Saturday the August 22.