Angela Levin went on claiming: “She will control it – it will be lots of phone calls, lots of telling him what to do. She has to be in charge.”
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday dismissed the petition seeking re-election and annulment of the February 8 elections, imposing a Rs500,000 fine on the petitioner for failing to appear before the court.
The development comes as a three-member SC bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, comprising Justice Musarrat Hilali and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, heard Brig (retd) Ali Khan’s petition urging the apex court to annul the polls and order re-elections due to alleged rigging.
Several political groups, including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Jamaat-e-Islami, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), and others, have expressed concern with the general elections’ transparency.
Angela Levin went on claiming: “She will control it – it will be lots of phone calls, lots of telling him what to do. She has to be in charge.”
Doubts about the polls were exacerbated by revelations made by now-former Rawalpindi Division commissioner Liaqat Chatha, who resigned on Saturday due to “guilty conscience” for abetting large-scale electoral rigging in the garrison city, raising the political temperature in the country.
During the hearing today, the CJP enquired about the petitioner’s identity. The court learned that the applicant is a former military officer who was court-martialed in 2012.
“The state should ensure that a court-martialed person does not use the rank of brigadier,” the judge said.
The extra attorney general informed the court about the attempts to make contact with the petitioner, stating that not only were the police deployed to Khan’s house, but the Ministryof Defence also had sent a notice — which then was displayed on the gate as the petitioner was unavailable.
