LAHORE - The Lahore High Court yesterday ordered recounting of votes in UC 39 of Lahore and directed District & Sessions judge to monitor the whole process.
Justice Muhammad Farrukh Irfan Khan of the Lahore High Court passed the order on a petition filed by Shujauddin Dar of PML-N. The judge had already stayed announcement of final result in the constituency.
Faisal Chaudhary, the respondent independent candidate of chairmanship of UC 39, notched the seat from Shujauddin Dar of PML-N. Shujauddin Dar, in his petition, alleged that massive irregularities were committed in the constituency concerned. He stated that form-11 had not been filed according to requirement of law as essential information about total number of votes etc was missing. Beside it, he said, there was an alteration in column no 6 of the Form without signatures of the presiding officer.
He had prayed the court to set aside the result and order recounting in the constituency concerned.
In another case, Justice Muhammad Farrukh Irfan Khan took strong notice of a vote cast on behalf of a dead woman-voter in UC 49 of Jaranwala and directed the RO to file an affidavit about the transparency of the polling.
Khizar Hayat, a runner up candidate, had filed the petition and challenged victory of Zulfiqar Matru from UC-49 of Jaranwala as chairman. The petitioner pointed out that the polling was not held in a fair and transparent manner.
He pointed out that a vote was cast in the UC on behalf of one Sughran Bibi who had died eight years back. He also presented death certificate of the ‘voter’.
At this, Justice Farrukh Irfan Khan remarked that such fact had doubted the whole polling process of the local government election held in the constituency.
The petitioner stated that He pleaded that the RO conducted polling as per his own wish instead of the law. On it, the judge ordered the ECP to seal whole record of the constituency and directed the RO to submit his affidavit on the transparency of the election. The court put off further hearing until Nov 12.