ISLAMABAD:
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has issued its written order on a petition filed by a PTI-backed candidate Shoaib Shaheen against the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)’s decision to transfer an election dispute from the Islamabad election tribunal. to a court in Rawalpindi.
Three PTI candidates, including Shaheen, who had contested the elections in the three National Assembly constituencies in the federal capital (NA-46, NA-47 and NA-48) had approached an election tribunal headed by a IHC judge Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri against alleged fraud. .
PML-N leaders Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, Raja Khurram Nawaz and Anjum Aqeel Khan, who had won these elections, had later approached the ECP seeking transfer of the cases to another court.
In October, the ECP accepted these petitions and transferred the cases to the Rawalpindi electoral tribunal headed by Justice (retd) Abdul Shakoor Paracha.
Subsequently, the PTI candidates challenged the order in the IHC stopping the proceedings of the new tribunal through separate orders respectively on December 19 and 23.
According to the order, the petitioner contended that the ECP’s reasoning for accepting the PML-N leader’s petition was erroneous and therefore “untenable”. “It was further held that the impugned order [of the ECP] is not in light of the observations made by this court [IHC] in an earlier round if the litigation, namely in written petition no. 1796-2024 and another vide judgment of July 29, 2024,” he said. The order, while allowing the exemption requested by the petitioner, suspended the proceedings of the newly formed tribunal.
The ECP, in three separate but identical orders announced by a four-member bench headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, justified the move under Articles 218(3) and 10-A of the Constitution and Sections 3, 4 and 151 of the Election Law.
The election petitions were transferred to the Rawalpindi divisional election tribunal headed by Justice (retd) Paracha, who was also granted jurisdiction over the Islamabad Capital Territory.
“The above notification of the election tribunal comprising Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri for Islamabad Capital Territory is hereby withdrawn. The office is directed to take appropriate follow-up action,” the orders said.
The decision was based on pleas submitted by PML-N leaders Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, Raja Khurram Nawaz and Anjum Aqeel Khan. The respondents in the cases were PTI members Shoaib Shaheen, Syed Muhammad Ali Bokhari and Aamir Masood Mughal.
