LAHORE - An election tribunal on Thursday rejected the plea made by the lawyers of National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq requesting adjournment for August 22 in the alleged rigging case of NA-122.
The associates of Advocate Asjad Saeed, the counsel of Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, appeared before Tribunal Judge Kazim Malik and pleaded that their senior was abroad and could not appear in the court.
They requested the judge to adjourn the hearing until August 22. At this, Judge Kazim Malik observed the case, while being at the important stage, could not be adjourned.
The judge also sought final arguments on the alleged rigging in PP-143 on next hearing fixed as August 3. Justice Malik said the arguments on NA-122 would also be completed along with PP-143 and the decision on both the constituencies would be announced if the arguments were not completed.
Previously on May 30, Nadra had submitted a supplementary forensic report of the constituency NA-122, stating only 5898 (96.7 per cent) voters out 6123 could be declared or considered as valid voters which were earlier declared invalid by the authority on the pretext that CNICs of those voters were never issued by Nadra.
After this report, in the view of Nadra, only 204 votes could be declared as invalid in the constituency.
Imran Khan had challenged the victory of Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and alleged that Ayaz had stolen the mandate of the general public and committed rigging to beat him. He prayed the court to set aside the election and announce re-election in the constituency.