ISLAMABAD: The election tribunal of the Balochistan High Court on Friday declared election of the National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Khan Suri null and void and ordered a re-election in his constituency, NA-265 (Quetta – II).

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader was elected on the NA seat in 2018. Later, he was elected as the deputy speaker of the National Assembly.

Balochistan National Party leader Nawabzada Lashkari Raisani had challenged the poll alleging that he had rigged the election. He had accused that over half of the votes in NA-265 election were rigged, therefore the poll was invalid.

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Justice Abdullah Baloch announced the verdict in this regard after hearing the arguments of both the parties. The high court had reserved the verdict earlier this month.

On August 1, the Senate had rejected the resolution tabled by the opposition against Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani and Deputy Chairman Saleem Mandviwala, for failing to get the desired number of votes on Thursday.

The opposition’s no-confidence motion could get only 50 votes, while it required at least 53 votes to get it approved in the Senate. 45 votes were cast in Sadiq Sanjrani’s favour. The presiding officer had rejected three votes during counting in presence of the government and opposition representatives.

With the rejection of the no-trust motion Sadiq Sanjrani stayed as the chairman Senate. All 100 senators present in the House voted on no-confidence motion. The Senate had began proceeding on the resolution against the chairman and the deputy chairman after majority of the Senators rose from their seats to confirm their agreement to it.