Lahore High Court Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial on Wednesday sought assistance from the attorney general and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on the role of returning officers.
He was hearing a petition of National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq against an order of the ECP to the returning officer of NA-122 on the inspection of the electoral record of the constituency.
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan who lost the election from the constituency had obtained an order for inspection of the record.
Representing the petitioner, Barrister Maqsooma Bukhari told the court that returning officers were not answerable to the ECP after the elections.
She said the petitioner had no objection to the inspection of election records, except ballot papers, as mentioned in Section 45 of the Representation of the People Act, 1976.
She said the RO did not have any record because it had been forwarded to the ECP. Ahmed Awais, Khan’s counsel, defended ECP’s order and argued that People Representation Act authorised the commission to issue orders to returning officers even after the election.
ECP’s counsel sought time to submit its comments.
The hearing was adjourned till May 7.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 17th, 2014.