Pakistan apex court trashes pleas against 2013 polls

The Supreme Court of Pakistan Wednesday dismissed all three petitions that challenged the 2013 general elections. A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk heard the peitions.

The petitions sought the 2013 elections to be declared null and void, alleging rigging and claiming the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) used faulty magnetic ink. The petitions called upon the apex court to order fresh elections.

The chief justice, during the hearing Wednesday, asked how the petitioners would prove that pre-election arrangements were based on ill-intent, Geo News reported.

He said that the petitions were not maintainable and were only a pile of accusations that could not be considered as record.

It was not the court's responsibility to launch investigation by considering the allegations as facts, he added.

The Supreme Court earlier accepted three petitions that challenged the 2013 general elections and requested it to declare them null and void.

The elections were challenged by former Supreme Court Justice (retd.) Muhammad Akhtar Siddiqui, former interior minister Mian Zahid Sarfaraz and Dawood Ghaznavi, a citizen.