Ali Hassan Zehri. Photo: archive
ISLAMABAD:
The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has suffered its first major blow in the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC), when its key leader Ali Hassan Zehri was suspended by the court as a member of the Balochistan Assembly.
The FCC remanded the matter to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for deciding the application regarding recounting of votes in the 39 polling stations of the Hub constituency (PB-21).
“Permission to appeal is granted and this petition is converted into an appeal and allowed and the order of the Balochistan High Court dated December 20, 2024 as well as that of the Election Commission of Pakistan dated December 16, 2024 are set aside with further directions to the Election Commission of Pakistan to comply with the order of the Supreme Court in letter and spirit and decide the petitions for recounting of votes in PB-21 in 39 polling stations of new.” says a 15-page ruling written by FCC Judge Ali Baqar Najafi while hearing the matter brought by Zahri’s opponent candidate, Muhammad Saleh Bhotani.
“If the recount requests are decided in the affirmative, the votes will be recounted in 39 polling stations, and if the requests are decided in the negative, the recount will be carried out in accordance with the law as quickly as possible and preferably within two months. Until then, the notification of the re-elected candidate of the respondent No. 4 is suspended,” the ruling reads.
The litigation had continued since the general elections of February 8, 2024.
Zehri is known to be a close confidant of President Asif Ali Zardari in Balochistan. The ruling sparked debate about the timing of the FCC’s ruling. Many lawyers felt that Zehri’s suspension was a clear message to the PPP leadership.
Munir Ahmad Kakar, Zehri’s lawyer, also raised serious questions about the FCC’s order regarding the suspension of his client’s MPA.
The FCC in its ruling noted that “recount is always permitted on the basis of some material establishing illegality and irregularity in the recount and powers to conduct a recount should be permitted sparingly after checking the material/evidence that there are all inclusions/exclusions of the ballot papers in the recount.”
“The sanctity of the ballot is sacrosanct and, therefore, it should not be allowed to be violated by frivolous/vague and indefinite allegations not supported by adequate statements of detailed material facts. Full justice should only be allowed to be done between the parties without a roving inquiry with a view to fishing for material to declare the election void,” the order said.
The word “proceeding” is a very broad term and generally means a prescribed cause of action to enforce a legal right. It includes all the steps taken for the advancement of a case in court from its inception to its disposition for the purpose of reparation, redress of injury or damage or for the purposes of reparation.
The purpose of the interpretation or construction of the word “procedures” is to understand the true intention that emerges from its clear meaning without making any mistake by attributing to it a meaning different from the one it carries in its grammatical sense ordinarily assigned to the word.
On the other hand, one of the petitioner’s lawyers claimed that Bhotani deserved better as the FCC should have decided the matter itself instead of sending it back to the ECP.
