ISLAMABAD  -  An Election Tribunal of the Is­lamabad High Court (IHC) will Monday (today) resume hear­ing of the petition filed by Shoaib Shaheen Advocate challenging the election result of his constituency of NA-47. 

The election tribunal com­prising of IHC judge Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri will conduct hearing of the petition filed by Shoaib Shaheen Advo­cate challenging the election re­sult of his constituency of NA-47. In this matter, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) previously revealed before the Election Tribunal that the presiding officers have not sent snapshots of the results to the Returning Officer due to non-availability of connectivity. 

The tribunal mentioned in its written order that as pro­vided in Section 13 (2) of the Elections Act, 2017 that the Presiding Officer shall im­mediately take snapshot of the result of the count and, as soon as connectivity is avail­able and it is practicable, send it electronically or through other appropriate technolo­gies to the Commission and the Returning Officer before sending the original docu­ments under section 90. 

In this regard, Additional Director General (Law), Election Commission of Pak­istan submitted that “as on the election day the connec­tivity was not available, so Presiding Officers have not sent snapshots of the results to the Returning Officer as provided under Section 13(2) of the Elections Act, 2017 rather they provided the results physically to the Returning Officer.” Counsel for respondent No.2 (Re­turning Officer) also submit­ted that Presiding Officers have not communicated the results in shape of snap­shots of the count when the connectivity was available rather the same were com­municated to the Returning Officer physically.” Counsel for respondent No.3 (MNA Tariq Fazal Chaudhary) sub­mitted that written state­ment/ reply in terms of Sec­tion 147 of Elections Act, 2017 has been prepared alongwith affidavits of the witnesses/ respondent No.3 and Forms-45, 46 and 47 and same will be filed today.