KARACHI: The Election Tribunal, Karachi, adjourned on Friday the hearing of an election petition challenging the victory of Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah to a provincial assembly seat after the cross-examination of petitioner Syed Ghous Ali Shah.

Advocate Farooq H. Naek, counsel for the chief minister, cross-examined the petitioner a former Sindh CM and a central leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz at the Election Tribunal headed by former high court judge Dr Zafar Ahmed Khan Sherwani.

During the cross-examination, the PML-N leader said that he did not support the martial law imposed by former dictator Gen Ziaul Haq. He said Gen Zia and General Pervez Musharraf committed unconstitutional acts in 1977 and 2007, respectively.

He said that he was a judge of the Sindh High Court and was made chief minister after he resigned as SHC judge.

Mr Shah said that he contested election from Khairpur seven times, but never challenged the elections results. He said that he moved the tribunal against the election results for the first time as unprecedented massive rigging had been committed in the last elections in the constituency.

The PML-N leader had lost elections on a PA and National Assembly seat (PS-29 and NA-215) in his hometown Khairpur to Nawab Ali Wassan and Mr Shah, respectively. Mr Shah of the PPP was declared returned candidate after he had secured 44,362 votes on PS-29 seat while Mr Wassan won by bagging 91,809 votes on NA-215.

The election tribunal had on Dec 6, 2013 ordered the National Database and Registration Authority to carry out verification of thumb impressions of voters on entire ballots in PS-29 won by CM Shah.

The tribunal also allowed another application of the PML-N leader for verification of thumbprints of all voters on ballots in NA-215.

The election petitions against the chief minister and the PPP MNA were initially filed in the Election Tribunal, Sukkur, headed by former district and sessions judge Zaheerudin Leghari. The two PPP men moved the SHC through constitutional petitions against the tribunal expressing no-confidence in the head of the tribunal. They said that Mr Leghari was `biased` for being a `mureed` (disciple) of Pir Pagara, the chief of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional, an ally of the PML-N.

The SHC had also restrained the Sukkur election tribunal from proceeding with the election petitions against the PPP legislators and later the Election Commission of Pakistan shifted the petitions to Karachi election tribunal.

Syed Ghuas Ali Shah would be cross-examined by the counsel of Nawab Wassan on Saturday (today) at the tribunal.