Qasim Suri petitions Supreme Court against election tribunal’s order to deseat him – Pakistan

The vice president of the National Assembly, Qasim Suri, filed a petition in the Supreme Court on Tuesday to challenge the verdict of an electoral tribunal of the Baluchistan High Court that annulled his election.

The petition, which was filed by Naeem Bukhari on behalf of Suri, argued that the vice president could not be blamed for irregularities in the elections. The appeal further alleged that the court did not consider the facts of the matter and urged the Supreme Court to declare its verdict void.

Last week, the court had ordered a re-election in the NA-265 (Quetta II) constituency, from which Suri was elected, in a verdict on a petition filed by Nawabzada Lashkari Raisani of the Balochistan National Party (BNP). The BNP candidate, who had lost to Suri, had claimed that the election should be declared void since 65,000 votes could not be verified.

Suri remains eligible to challenge re-election. So far, the Electoral Commission of Pakistan has not announced a date for re-election.

According to the results announced by the ECP, Suri had received 25,979 votes, while Raisani had received 20,394 votes. According to the final count, 3,422 votes in total had been rejected in the constituency.