ISLAMABAD: Election tribunals have gained momentum in deciding election disputes, but still they could decide only 27 per cent of the petitions. Since the legal deadline for deciding election petitions within 180 days has long passed, the election courts decided 51 petitions between November 16, 2024 and December 31, 2024, bringing the total number of petitions decided to 101 or 27 percent of the total cases, according to the systematic monitoring of electoral disputes by Fafen, the Free Elections Network and Fair.
Fafen has been able to track 370 of 377 petitions filed with 23 courts. However, courts in Punjab, Sindh and KP still lag behind those in Balochistan, where three courts have decided 41 of 51 election disputes (80 per cent).
Six KP and five Sindh courts have decided only a fifth of their respective cases, with nine of 42 KP cases and 16 of 83 Sindh cases decided so far. Punjab courts have decided 35 out of 191 petitions so far, accounting for 18 per cent of their cumulative caseload.
About a third of result disputes in Provincial Assembly constituencies and a fifth in National Assembly constituencies have been resolved. In total, 78 provincial constituency petitions have been decided (34 for Balochistan Assembly, 25 for Punjab Assembly, 12 for Sindh Assembly and seven for KP Assembly) against 23 constituency dispute decisions of NA (10 in Punjab, seven in Balochistan, four in Sindh and two in KP.
The courts have so far only decided 27% of the petitions
As multiple petitions can be filed against the result of a constituency, the number of NA constituencies decided is 21 and provincial assembly constituencies are 74. Most of the petitions decided so far were dismissed by the courts. As many as 97 of the 101 decided petitions have been dismissed, only three have been accepted, while one petition has been dismissed due to the death of the petitioner.
Some 43 were dismissed for non-sustainability, nine were dismissed for being withdrawn by the petitioners, 12 for non-prosecution, one for failure to deposit the process fee despite a court order and one for death of the returned candidate. The courts rejected 20 petitions after the trial.
All petitions decided in NA constituencies have been dismissed, while three petitions in Balochistan Assembly constituencies have been accepted and courts direct rerun of elections in parts of the constituencies.
These constituencies include PB-44, Quetta-VII; PB-45, Quetta-VIII; and PB-36, Kalat. Two accepted petitions were presented by the losing candidates of the JUI-P and one of the National Party against two winners of the Parliamentary of the PPP and one of the BAP.
Published in Dawn, January 3, 2025
