ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court was moved on Friday to set aside the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision to hold fresh by-election in NA-75 (Daska tehsil), Sialkot.
Filed by Advocate Mohammad Shahzad Shaukat on behalf of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf candidate Ali Asjad Malhi, the petition contended that the ECP, while hearing complaints about missing results of 23 polling stations, could not order re-polling in the entire constituency.
“The ECP has no jurisdiction to pass a short order as this jurisdiction vests only with the Supreme Court, which already held in the 1993 Nawaz Sharif versus President of Pakistan and the 1998 Benazir Bhutto versus President of Pakistan cases that merely because several illegalities had taken place in certain polling stations, no justification existed in annulling elections of all polling stations,” the petition said.