Dec 13 , 2015
News
ECP terms NA speaker’s criticism over NA-122 tribunal baseless
ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has termed the criticism by Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq baseless for sending a PTI application to an election tribunal over alleged vote transfers before the 2015 by-poll in Lahore's NA-122 constituency.
Sadiq had blasted the commission for sending the application to the tribunal without finding out his point of view on the issue, terming the action based on ‘malicious intentions’.
He said the election commission would bear the consequences of its own incompetence this time around as he had already suffered at the hands of the institution’s irresponsibility once.
In a statement issued here today, the ECP responded to Sadiq’s criticism saying the commission was an independent institution and fully aware of its responsibilities. Laws cannot be altered for providing personal gains to an individual, it added.
The statement further said that the NA speaker’s criticism of a constitutional institution was ‘baseless’.
The feud took place after a notice was issued to the NA Speaker by an election tribunal on Friday on a petition filed by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Aleem Khan alleging pre-poll rigging in the NA-122 by-poll in the shape of vote transfers.
According to the petition, some 30,000 votes had been cancelled and shifted from the constituency before the by-poll earlier this year.
It may be mentioned that Sardar Ayaz Sadiq of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was re-elected from the National Assembly constituency after his win in the 2013 general elections had been challenged in the court by PTI’s Aleem Khan.
Following the second NA-122 win, Ayaz Sadiq was elected as NA Speaker again, becoming the first individual in the country’s history to do so.
Courtesy www.geo.tv