Former Deputy Speaker National Assembly Qasim Khan Suri has challenged his disqualification by an election tribunal in the apex court. Suri was elected member of National Assembly from NA-265 (Quetta-II) constituency in general elections 2018 and later became the deputy speaker of the lower house. His victory was challenged by his rival candidate Raisani who accused Suri of rigging the polls.
In his appeal filed in the Supreme Court on Tuesday, the former deputy speaker NA prayed that the decision of the election tribunal be declared null and void.
Naeem Bukhari Advocate, who filed the petition, stated that the election tribunal has not taken into account various evidence attributed to it regarding the irregularities in the election system. He further prayed that the application be fixed for hearing today (Wednesday). An election tribunal of the Balochistan High Court (BHC) on September 27, 2019 declared the election of Qasim Khan Suri as null and void over vote-rigging and ordered re-election in the NA-265 (Quetta II) constituency.
A total of 114,000 votes were cast in his constituency out of which a huge number of votes were declared invalid. Suri's opponent alleged that the election was rigged brazenly as 65,000 votes were not verified. According to the tribunal order, Suri remained eligible to contest by-election. He has seven days to appeal the judgment at the Supreme Court. There were no immediate comments from his office either.
The ECP results show that Suri had received 25,979 votes while Raisani had received 20,394 votes. According to the ECP's official results, 3,422 votes in total had been rejected in the constituency.
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