Form 45 holds no importance against ballots, says CJP Isa

• Three-member bench hears PPP candidate's plea for vote recount.
• Court upholds PML-N's M Khan Lehri's victory from Naseerabad.
• No status of election-related forms once ballots are opened: CJP.

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa has remarked that election-related Forms 45 does not hold any significance and has no status against votes once ballot boxes are opened, The News reported on Friday.

The decision of the election is made via votes and "Form 45 or 75" has no importance against it, the top judge said during the hearing of a petition filed by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) candidate Ghulam Rasool on recounting of votes of Balochistan Assembly constituency PB-14, Naseerabad on Thursday.

Justice Isa's remarks come as the February 8 polls year were marred by allegations of election interference and result manipulation by opposition parties with the Pakistan Tehkree-e-Insaf (PTI) calling the incumbent ruling coalition a "Form 47" government.

The Imran Khan-founded party, ever since the polls earlier this year, has time again complained of alleged manipulation of Form 47 — an election-related form which provisions the vote count from all polling stations of a constituency which amounts to a provisional consolidated result of the constituency sans postal ballots.

Throughout the months following the general elections, the PTI demanded the Election Commission of Pakistan to release Form 45s, also known as the Presiding Officer's Results of the Count which records the number of votes cast in a polling station and also mentions how many votes a candidate received from that polling station. The purpose of this form is to prevent any alteration during the process.

The said form was finally released by the ECP along with Forms  46, 48, and 49 in March.

During the hearing yesterday, the three-member bench led by the chief justice dismissed the PPP candidate's plea for recount saying that there was no evidence of the allegations on record and upheld the victory of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Muhammad Khan Lehri at the Naseerabad seat.

The bench also includes Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan and Justice Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan.

CJP Isa observed that Form 45 has no importance in front of votes, adding that the most important evidence in elections is votes while Form 45 is filled by the presiding officers.

Presenting his arguments before the court, the petitioner’s counsel accused the presiding officers of fraud and contended that the officers had produced wrong results after re-polling at seven polling stations of the constituency. At this, the CJP asked the counsel as to how he knew that the wrong result was prepared.

The counsel replied the presiding officers were biased and they did not prepare the result according to Form 45. The chief justice, however, observed that once the boxes are opened, "Form 45 or 75" doesn't have any status.

Addressing the counsel, Justice Afghan noted that the POs presented the original record while he was running the case on copies and said: "Even your witnesses have wrongly named the presiding officers and could not even prove themselves as polling agents".

Meanwhile, the CJP said that the lawyer's claim was wrong, adding that he should either raise an objection on the recounting or that the boxes were open.

"But your case is that the presiding officers are biased against you and you did not object to the recount," he said, adding that the court decides the case on the basis of facts, adding that it was not a case of husband and wife who would decide on truth and lie.

He said that the decision was on the record and asked the counsel to prove the bias of presiding officers.

"Tell me if they were relatives," the CJP asked the counsel, adding that even if the presiding officer has any enmity, the decision is made by vote.

Justice Hassan said that this was a very simple case, but the records do not prove the allegations — the counsel, however, contended that his client was declared a liar.

The court then upheld the victory decision of the PML-N candidate from PB-14 and rejected the plea for recounting at seven polling stations.