FAFEN’s 5th Update on Election Tribunals

ISLAMABAD, January 02, 2025: The election tribunals have decided 51 petitions between November 16, 2024 and December 31, 2024 bringing the total of decided petitions to 101 or 27 percent of the total cases, according to FAFEN’s systematic tracking of election disputes.

FAFEN has been able to track 370 out of 377 petitions filed with the 23 tribunals. Notwithstanding the lapse of 180-day legal deadline for the disposal of an election petition, the tribunals have picked momentum in terms of deciding the petitions. However, tribunals in Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) continue to varyingly lag behind those in Balochistan where three tribunals have decided 41 out of 51 results disputes (80 percent).
Six KP, and five Sindh tribunals have decided only one-fifth of their respective caseloads with nine out of 42 KP cases and 16 out of 83 Sindh cases decided so far. Punjab tribunals have decided 35 out of 191 petitions so far that makes 18 percent of their cumulative caseload.

Around one third of results disputes on Provincial Assembly (PA) constituencies and one fifth on National Assembly (NA) constituencies have been decided. Overall, 78 petitions on provincial constituencies have been decided– 34 for Balochistan Assembly, 25 for Punjab Assembly, 12 for Sindh Assembly, and seven for KP Assembly– as against 23 decisions of disputes on NA constituencies– 10 in Punjab, seven in Balochistan, four in Sindh and two in KP.

As multiple petitions can be filed against the result of a constituency, the number of NA constituencies decided is 21 and provincial assembly constituencies is 74. Please refer to annexure I for NA and annexure II for provincial assembly constituencies where results disputes have been decided by tribunals so far.

Under Section 155(1) of the Elections Act, 2017, any person aggrieved by the final decision of an Election Tribunal regarding an election petition challenging an Assembly election may file an appeal to the Supreme Court within 30 days of the decision. FAFEN used the SC online public facility to ascertain the number of appeals filed against the tribunals’ decisions and found out that at least 21 such appeals have been filed out of which three have already been decided. In one case of Balochistan Assembly seat, SC reversed the decision of a tribunal while in two cases the apex court upheld the tribunals’ verdicts.
An overwhelming majority of petitions decided so far was dismissed by the tribunals. As many as 97 out of 101 decided petitions have been dismissed, only three accepted whereas one petition has been abated due to death of the petitioner.

Of 97 dismissed petitions, as many as 43 were dismissed for non-maintainability, nine were dismissed as withdrawn by petitioners, 12 for non-prosecution, one for non-deposit of process fee despite a court order, and one for death of the returned candidate. The tribunals rejected 20 petitions after trial. FAFEN has yet to ascertain the reasons for the dismissal of the remaining 11 petitions due to unavailability of the copies of respective judgements. All petitions decided on NA constituencies have been dismissed whereas three petitions on Balochistan Assembly constituencies have been accepted with tribunals directing re-poll on parts of the constituencies. These constituencies include PB-44 Quetta-VII, PB-45 Quetta-VIII and PB-36 Kalat. Two accepted petitions were filed by losing candidates of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Pakistan (JUI-P) and one by the National Party (NP) against two winners from Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarian (PPPP), and one from the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP).

One election petition filed by the PPPP’s losing candidate of a Sindh Assembly constituency against the MQM-P’s returned candidate was abated due to the death of the petitioner.
Among the dismissed petitions, 32 were filed by independents backed by PTI, 13 each by unaffiliated independent and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidates, 11 by PPPP, eight by JUI-P, four by NP, three by Awami National Party (ANP), two each by Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) and Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PKMAP), and one each by BAP, Balochistan National Party (BNP), Balochistan National Party Awami (BNPA), Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), Hazara Democratic Party (HDP), Haq Do Tehrik, Jamat e Islami (JI), Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), and Khadameen e Sindh (KS).

In terms of the respondents, 32 decided petitions were filed against PML-N winners, 20 against PTI-backed independent winners, 13 against PPPP winners, 10 each against unaffiliated independent and MQM-P winners, seven against JUI-P winners, two against NP candidates, and one each against winners from BNPA, BNP, and BAP.

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