FCC suspends PPP’s Ali Hassan Zehri’s victory notification, orders fresh recount in PB-21 Hub

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) suspended the victory notification of Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) candidate Ali Hassan Zehri and directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to re-examine pending requests for a recount.

Balochistan Minister for Agriculture and Cooperative Mir Ali Hassan Zehri on late Tuesday night tendered his resignation from the provincial cabinet with immediate effect.

A three-judge FCC bench, headed by Chief Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan, on Wednesday announced the decision on the petition of Muhammad Saleh Bhotani against the Balochistan High Court (BHC) judgment dated 20th December, 2024.

The FCC set aside the order of the BHC and of the ECP dated 16.12.2024, and directed the Commission to decide the applications for recounting of the votes in PB-21 Hub in 39 polling stations afresh either way.

READ MORE: PPP MPA Zehri joins Bugti-led cabinet

The ECP declared Ali Hassan Zehri (Respondent No.4) as the returned candidate from PB-21 Hub Balochistan. The BHC had dismissed Bhotani’s petition in limine, while holding that the remedy of the petitioner lie by way of appeal before this Court (FCC) by virtue of the provisions of Section 9(5) of the Elections Act, 2017.

According to Form 47 of Provisional Consolidated Statement of Result, issued on 09-04-2024, the total valid votes polled were recorded as 70,328, and votes rejected/excluded from the count were 17,155. Ali Hassan Zehri was shown to have secured 23,974 votes and was declared a returned candidate. Rajab Ali Rind was shown the runner-up and secured 17,441 votes, while the petitioner was declared third, securing only 17, 403 votes.

According to the petitioner, a very simple formula applied to reduce his votes from 30,910 to 17,403 by enhancing the rejected ballot papers from 3,648 (as in Form 47) to 17,155, i.e. by increasing rejected ballot papers almost 5-folds by 13,507 ballot papers, and then to deduct exactly this number of ballot papers (votes) cast in favour of petitioner from his originally counted votes of 30,910 (thus 30,910 minus 13,507 equals 17,403).

The FCC verdict said: “If the recounting applications are decided in affirmative, then recount of the votes in 39 polling stations will be carried out, and if the applications are decided in negative, then it shall proceed further in accordance with the law expeditiously and preferably within a period of two months.”

The FCC said that the impugned orders (BHC and ECP) are not sustainable in the eyes of law particularly in view of the consent order passed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

By virtue of the order passed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan on 20.11.2024 the proceedings before the Election Commission of Pakistan stood annulled and the matter was to be decided by it afresh on the pending applications which means that the applications for recounting was to be decided afresh without being influenced by the previous results since they no longer existed from the very date.

The FCC judgment noted that the proceedings were vitiated by the parties themselves through an arrangement duly approved by the Supreme Court, therefore it does not provide an opportunity to the Election Commission of Pakistan to rely upon any recounting made before and during the said proceedings which have already been scrapped. “It simply means that the petitioner was to be considered as a returned candidate until the result of recounting is compiled and presented before the Election Commission of Pakistan.”