Ali Hassan Zehri. Photo: file
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 back to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to decide the application regarding the recount of votes in the Hub (PB-21) constituency’s 39 polling stations.
“Leave to appeal is granted and this petition is converted into an appeal and is allowed and the order of the Balochistan High Court dated 20 December 2024 as well as that of the Election Commission of Pakistan dated 16 December 2024 is set aside with further directions to the Election Commission of Pakistan to comply with the order of the Supreme Court and to decide the application for poll in the spirit of the Supreme Court. PB-21 at 39 polling places anew either way,” said a 15-page ruling written by FCC Judge Ali Baqar Najafi while hearing the case brought by Zahri’s rival candidate Muhammad Saleh Bhotani.
“If the recount applications are decided in the affirmative, a recount of the votes will be carried out in 39 polling stations, and if the applications are decided negatively, then in accordance with the legislation it must proceed quickly and preferably within a period of two months. Until then, the notification of the returned candidate to defendant no. 4 is suspended,” reads the judgment.
The trial had been ongoing since the general election on 8 February 2024.
Zehri is known to be a close confidant of President Asif Ali Zardari in Balochistan. The ruling sparked a debate about the timing of the FCC ruling. Many lawyers were of the view 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 order suspending his client’s MPA.
The FCC noted in its judgment that “recount is always permitted on the basis of some material establishing illegality and irregularity in the count and the powers to recount should be allowed sparingly upon satisfaction of the material/proof of any inclusion/exclusion of the ballot in the count”.
“The sanctity of the ballot paper is sacrosanct and therefore should not be allowed to be violated on frivolous/vague and indefinite allegations not supported by adequate statement of detailed material facts. It should only be allowed to do full justice between the parties without a roving inquiry to fish out material to declare the election void,” the order said.
The word “process” is a very broad term and generally means a prescribed cause of action for the enforcement of a legal right. It includes any step taken towards the further progress of a suit in the Court or Tribunal from its commencement to its disposal for the purpose of relief, remedy of injury or damage or for remedial objects.
The purpose of interpreting or constructing the word “proceedings” is to understand the true intent to be gathered by its plain meaning, without making any mistake to assign a meaning other than that which is carried in their ordinary grammatical meaning attached to the word.
On the other hand, one of the petitioner’s counsel stated that Bhotani deserved better as the FCC should have decided the case itself instead of sending it back to the ECP.
