'Rigged election' petitions by defeated PTI-backed independents dismissed by Pak Court

30+ petitions claiming a rigged election were dismissed by the Lahore High Court, asking petitioners to move to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for redressal of their grievances, including alleged rigging of votes in the February 8 general elections.

Lahore: A Pakistani court on Tuesday dismissed more than 30 petitions filed by jailed former premier Imran Khan's party backed independent candidates who challenged the "sham victory" of top PML-N leaders, including former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz.

The Lahore High Court while dismissing the petitions asked the defeated Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party-backed candidates to move to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for redressal of their grievances, including alleged rigging of votes in the February 8 general elections.

PTI's Dr Yasmin Rashid, who contested against Nawaz Sharif and claimed to have won in Lahore's NA-130 seat, termed the victories of the respondents a "sham" on the ground that the returning officers (ROs) concerned consolidated the results and prepared Form 47 (result-sheet) in their absence which is an illegal exercise of the power.

Lahore High Court Justice Ali Baqar Najafi, who heard the maintainability of the petitions, said: "The Supreme Court in another case categorically ruled that the extraordinary jurisdiction of the high court cannot be reduced to an ordinary jurisdiction of the high court as there will be disputed questions of facts which cannot be resolved."

"If there is no ordinary remedy available, the extraordinary remedy of the constitutional jurisdiction could be invoked," he ruled.

The court dismissed the petitions directing the petitioners to move to the ECP for redressal of their grievances.

PTI senior lawyer Sardar Latif Khosa claimed that his party won 170 seats in the National Assembly in the polls marred by the allegations of rigging.

"Through historic rigging, the PTI was deprived of around 80 NA seats to stop the party from forming a government in Islamabad with a two-thirds majority," he claimed.

He added the PTI was ready to fight this battle in courts and get back its "snatched" seats.

Controversy surrounds the Pakistan elections after the ECP stopped issuing results for several hours.

The security agencies allegedly took control over the offices of the returning officers on election day and seized the result record.

The PTI said a systematic rigging was made to install a "puppet regime" in the country.