Election petition: DRO, RO of NA-25 Tank summoned

A three-member bench of the Supreme Court on Monday summoned District Returning Officer (DRO) and Returning Officer (RO) of NA-25 Tank on April 22 for disobeying its directives on not issuing votes recounting report. The bench adjourned the hearing of an election petition of Maulana Attaur Rehman, a candidate from NA-25 Tank for April 22.
Maulana Attaur Rehman, younger brother of Maulana Fazalur Rehman, had filed an election petition in the Supreme Court against Habibullah Kundi, a candidate of PML-Q challenging the decision of the Peshawar High Court regarding recounting of votes of various polling stations.
The bench comprising Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, Justice Chaudhry Ijaz Yousaf and Justice Muhammad Farrukh Mahmud heard the case and adjourned the hearing for April 22.
Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, advocate, represented the petitioner, Maulana Attaur Rehman and Waseem Sajjad appeared before the court as counsel of respondent Habibullah Kundi.
Earlier, the bench had issued a stay order directing Election Commission of Pakistan for not issuing result of recounting according to the decision of the Peshawar High Court, until the apex court gives its verdict on the petition of Maulana Ataur Rehman.Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, counsel for Maulana Attaur Rehman said that the court had directed not to announce the result of the recounting but the decision was not obeyed by the authorities concerned.
He said that the report on findings of recounting for NA-25 was asked to be presented in the Supreme Court. Waseem Sajjad, counsel for Habibullah Kundi said that according to the report of recounting, Habibullah Kundi had won the election of NA-25.
The bench asked Waseem Sajjad, who had directed the authorities concerned to disclose the result of recounting ignoring the orders issued by the Supreme Court, why the DRO and RO were in such a hurry that they had made the report public ignoring the directives of the apex court.
Waseem said that it would be pertinent to ask the DRO and RO of NA-25 to inform the court, as he could not give details pertaining to the matter. Then, the court ordered to summon DRO and RO to appear before the court on next hearing of the case. The court also took notice of issuing the recounting report to the provincial election commission.