ISLAMABAD - As per law no person is bound to quit his National Assembly constituency during hearing of petitions about electoral rigging, said an official of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday.
Commenting on Imran Khan's demand that Speaker National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq should resign till decision on a petition about rigging in his constituency, he said, "No law exits regarding resignation of Sardar Ayaz Sadiq as demanded by PTI Chairman Imran Khan." If any one quits his / her NA seat, the ECP was bound to hold bye-election within 60 days, he added.
The official said the demands of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) chief for verification of votes in some constituencies could only be taken by the election tribunals and not by any one else.
Similarly, the PTI's demand for recounting of votes in any constituency purely falls in the jurisdiction of election tribunals, he added.
As per the law and the Constitution, he explained the verification of votes and their recounting could only be ordered by the election tribunals. "Whatever the decision of an election tribunal, the ECP will implement it without any delay," he added.
Under the law, he said, the ECP could order recounting and even re-election in any constituency where it was convinced of prima facie irregularities, but it could be done only within 60 days of the elections. After the lapse of this period all such matters had to be dealt with by election tribunals.
The official said if anyone had any objection on the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), he/she had to approach the Supreme Judicial Council for his removal as per Article 209 of the Constitution. To a question, he said local and international observers had termed the general election 2013 as fair and transparent.
On the other hand, the irregularities committed by Imran Khan's counsel and adjournments taken by him during hearing of the petitions on rigging in NA- 122 constituency in 2013 general elections exposed the PTI leadership's claims, he added.
He said there were several glaring irregularities in Imran Khan's petition including submission of a female's affidavit for a male polling station, not having original affidavits, objections raised in NA 122 and the actual status and the objections raised in PP 147 and their status, respectively.
Imran Khan's case in the Lahore High Court was disposed of by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandiyal following hooliganism caused by Imran's followers.
Imran Khan's counsel sought time for filing reply following irregularities were pointed out in the submitted reply. Interestingly the writ petition number in reply was not correctly mentioned, the affidavit filed with reply had two dates of verification (Imran Khan mentioned that he swore on oath on May 8, 2014 while the oath commissioner's stamp indicated that it was attested in May 2009). Oath Commissioner Saifullah Khan Khalid, who attested the affidavit, has been declared by the Lahore High Court as not authorized to attest the affidavits. Counsel for Imran Khan has sought several adjournments after failing to submit a reply.