Islamabad (Web Desk): The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday reinstated Abdul Khaliq Achakzai as speaker of the Balochistan Assembly and annulled the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) suspension order.
A three-member bench headed by Justice Aminuddin Khan held the hearing of the case today and sent the matter back to the ECP with the consent of the candidates.
The court annulled the ECP’s order of re-polling on 12 polling stations of Chaman’s PB-51 constituency and also directed the electoral body to hear the candidates and decide within 10 days.
The ECP had suspended the notification of Achakzai’s success as speaker and ordered re-polling following the request of opposition candidate Asghar Khan Achakzai who had levelled allegations of irregularities and rigging during the electoral process.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader later challenged the ECP’s decision in the top court.
Abdul Achakzai had won the election from the constituency with 20,390 votes, securing victory over his opponent Asghar Achakzai of the Awami National Party (ANP), who received 19,623 votes.
During the hearing Justice Aminuddin Khan inquired “under which regulation did the ECP order re-polling at 12 polling stations”.
Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar added that the ECP looked at only 12 polling stations and ignored others.
ECP’s Director General (DG) replied that only the polling stations with a maximum turnout of votes were pointed out in petitions.
Upon this, Justice Mazhar remarked that the ECP should have conducted an inquiry of the entire constituency.