National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri on Tuesday filed a petition in the Supreme Court to challenge the verdict of a Balochistan High Court election tribunal that nullified his election.
The petition, which was filed by Naeem Bukhari on behalf of Suri, argued that the deputy speaker could not be blamed for irregularities in the election. The appeal further argued that the tribunal did not consider the facts of the matter and urged the Supreme Court to declare its verdict as void. Last week, the tribunal had ordered a re-election in the NA-265 (Quetta II) constituency – from where Suri was elected – in a verdict on a petition filed by Balochistan National Party’s (BNP) Nawabzada Lashkari Raisani. The BNP candidate, who had lost to Suri, had contended that the election should be declared null as 65,000 votes could not be verified.
Suri remains eligible to contest the re-election. So far, the Election Commission of Pakistan has not announced a date for re-election. According to the results announced by the ECP, Suri had received 25,979 votes, while Raisani had received 20,394 votes. According to the final tally, 3,422 votes in total had been rejected in the constituency.
