Makhdoom writes to CJP.

Byline: Shahzad Ahmad

Lahore -- A noted politician, Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat, Friday wrote a letter to the chief justice of Pakistan saying that the Election Commission of Pakistan had 'miserably failed to conduct the (general) elections in free, fair and impartial manner' in May 2018.

Makhdoom, who is also president of Pakistan Football Association and vice president of Asian Football Confederation, says in the open letter, 'These elections were held under the Election Act 2017, which was passed by the Parliament. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was under legal obligation to ensure the compliance of the provisions of the Act... The ECP has miserably failed to conduct the said elections in free, fair and impartial manner as is also required by the Constitution'

Saleh, who had contested the election for NA-114 Jhang-I, and was 'managed' to be defeated, alleges that the provisions of the Election Act were 'flagrantly violated which resulted in infecting the elections, and the entire election process (inclusive of pre-poll and post-poll events), with illegalities'.

He argues that all the political parties have rejected the results and made serious allegations upon the said elections so his case is a classic and fit example of not following the Constitution, the Act and also not performing the duties strictly in accordance with law.

He regrets that since the margin between him and 'so-called' winner was only .02 percent of the total votes polled, the former was entitled to the recount of entire votes.

He says that he filed an application to Returning Officer (RO) for the recount of the total votes polled in the said constituency. However, he adds, the RO miserably failed to conduct the said proceedings in accordance with law.

He elaborates that he (RO) initially permitted the opening of the bags of 10 polling stations arid in the same order decided to open the bags of 75 polling stations; however, in the outcome of the said recounting of votes of the 10 polling stations, the victory margin of the so-called returned candidate got reduced with margin of 78 votes.

Hence, the politician says, the net change of votes in margin of victory after recount it was 13.24% of the...