IHC chief justice dismisses PTI petition against election result after weak argumentation

Rating Justification

The iVerify Pakistan team has checked this content and has established that it is false.

To arrive at this verdict, the IVerify Pakistan team corroborated whether the alleged court proceedings occurred in the Islamabad High Court or not.

HOW IT STARTED

On February 14, 2024, PML-N Punjab President Rana Sanaullah Khan posted on his X account about alleged proceedings in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on a PTI petition against the result of the Feb 8 polls.

The post contained proceedings as they are transmitted by reporters to newsrooms. The content is reproduced below:

“Do you have any evidence of rigging?”: Chief justice Islamabad High Court

“We saw on the media that we were winning, but suddenly we lost”: Tehreek-i-Insaf

“Why come to the court then. Go to the owner of this channel so that he can make you successful”: Chief justice Islamabad High Court

Application dismissed!

The post gained over 566,000 views and 3,900 reshares.

Journalist Gul Bukhari also shared the same claim with her post receiving 250,000 views and 1,800 reshares.

PML-N winning candidate for NA-73 Syeda Nosheen Iftikhar also shared the claim on her X account and gained over 72,000 views.

The claim was further posted here, here, here, here, and here.

Notably, the claim did not provide any other details about the hearing or identify who the PTI representative was in the alleged quoted proceedings.

METHODOLOGY

The iVerify Pakistan team sought to determine the veracity of the claim due to its high virality, direct connection with petitions filed by PTI-backed candidates in the IHC and keen public result in the electoral success of PTI-affiliated independents.

Notably, the team also found another post by Bukhari saying in reference to the proceeding details she posted: “It is said that these tickers are fake.”

The team contacted Dawn reporter Umer Burney, who covers IHC proceedings, for corroboration. He said he was present during the IHC hearings over the petitions and “no such remarks were made”.

He said that on Feb 13, the IHC heard petitions filed by Shoaib Shaheen, Ali Bukhari, and Aamir Mughal against the Election Commission of Pakistan’s notifications for successful candidates in Islamabad’s constituencies of NA-46, NA-47 and NA-48.

Burney said IHC Chief Justice (CJ) Aamer Farooq presided over the hearings.

On Feb 14, CJ Farooq reserved the judgment on the petitions against notifications issued for successful candidates for NA-46, 47 and 48.

This was corroborated by news stories from Feb 14 which reported the same, including The Express Tribune and Samaa.

Both reports quoted the IHC chief justice as saying that he would not comment on the admissibility of the petitions before the ECP.

BACKGROUND

As per the ECP portal, the results of 264 of 266 National Assembly seats have been announced with independent candidates leading with 100 seats, followed by PML-N and PPP with 75 and 54 seats, respectively.

The PTI claimed that it had become the single largest party in the Centre and two provinces and has launched allegations of rigging and discrepancies in results as per Form 45s and Form 47s. The party has alleged that its candidates were in the lead as per Form 45s but others were made to win through Form 47s.

PTI-backed candidates subsequently challenged some of the results that are contested in the Sindh High Court (SHC), Lahore High Court (LHC) and the IHC.

The SHC and LHC dismissed the petitions and directed the petitioners to approach the ECP about the matter.

CONCLUSION

The iVerify Pakistan team has determined that the claimed IHC proceedings are false.

The proceedings never occurred and so far the high court has only reserved its verdict on PTI petitions instead of dismissing any.

Evidence and References