ISLAMABAD, Oct 14: Former secretary Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Kunwar Muhammad Dilshad on Monday said if MPA Ghulam Muhammad failed to prove allegations against the two-member commission, he will lose his seat even after taking a stay order from the Peshawar High Court.
During a telephonic conversation with ChitralToday, Mr Dilshad was told that there are allegations by the APML MPA that in the postal ballot recounting his 13 votes were put into the bag of the PPP candidate.
“This is a very serious allegation and now you’ve to prove it with all the evidence or else the law will take its course and you may end up losing the battle,” he added.
He maintained that if the election tribunal orders the suspension of the incumbent MPA based on the one-vote lead of his rival, the MPA has the right to obtain a stay order and continue working as the member of the provincial assembly.
“The postal ballots often contain lots of mistakes and de-seating a sitting member just on the basis of the postal ballot recounting and giving out-of-turn favour to the rival candidate, if that’s true, will bring a gusty storm beyond one’s imagination,” he maintained. Mr Dilshad said the election tribunal can also overturn the report of the commission if the allegations of alleged favour to PPP candidate proved true.
When informed that the APML candidate’s lawyer had also alleged that the manager of the PTDC Motel in Chitral, where the commission members stayed, had allegedly acted as a middleman between the two-member commission and the PPP candidate Sardar Hussain, Mr Dilshad said the tribunal, if felt necessary, can also make the manager a party to the case.
It may be noted that Waqas Ahmed, the counsel for Ghulam Muhammad, has accused the PTDC motel manager Amir Muhammad Khan of wheeling-dealing with the commission.
He said the lifetime ban on Pervez Musharraf for taking part in elections was itself a violation of the constitution, adding de-seating his party’s member provincial assembly would have drastic consequences.
“You can ban a candidate for a specific time not more than five years and there is no provision in the law to put a lifelong ban on a person from taking part in elections.”
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