GILGIT: Gilgit-Baltistan Election Tribunal Judge Mushtaq Mohammad on Friday suspended the membership of PPP lawmaker Attaullah Shah from GBA-16 Diamer-II and ordered re-polling at three polling stations in the constituency within 12 days.
Last month, Mr Shah was declared the returned candidate from the constituency following the counting of postal ballots on the tribunal’s orders, replacing Istehkam-iPakistan Party (IPP) candidate Imam Malik.
Initially, during the GB Assembly elections held in June this year, the GB Elecrion Commission had declared independent candidate Imam Malik, who later joined the IPP, the winner from GBA-16 Diamer-IL However, PPP candidate Attaullah Shah challenged the election commission’s notification before the GB Election Tribunal, arguing that the returning officer (RO) had issued Form-49 without counting postal ballots.
On Sept 11, tribunal judge Mushtaq Mohammad suspended Mr Malik’s membership and directed the RO to complete the verification and counting of postal ballots by Sept 16.
According to the revised consolidated results issued by the GB Election Commission on Form-49, Mr Shah secured 6,618 votes, defeating Mr Malik by a margin of just 13 votes.
However, Mr Malik had challenged the tribunal’s decision before the GB Supreme Appellate Court.
On Sept 19, the appellate court dismissed his appeal against the suspension of his membership and upheld the tribunal’s decision declaring Mr Shah the returned candidate.
Mr Malik later challenged the results at three polling stations and petitioned the election tribunal to order re-polling.
On Friday, the tribunal accepted his plea and suspended Mr Shah’s membership and directed the chief election commissioner to conduct repolling at the three polling stations within 12 days of Nov 6.