The Lahore High Court on Thursday summoned secretary Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for August 6, along with record of NA-131 and its both provincial Assembly constituencies PP-162 and PP-163 on a petition of Khwaja Saad Rafiq. The petitioner prayed for recounting of votes in the constituency where Imran Khan was a returned candidate. The court also stayed issuance of returned candidate's notification in NA-91, Sargodha, on petition of Amir Sultan Cheema, the runner-up candidate of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
Dr Zulfiqar Ali Bhatti of PML-N won the election from the constituency with a thin margin of 87 votes only.
Earlier, Khawaja Saad's counsel Azam Nazir Tarar argued that the ECP adopted a discriminatory policy on the issue of recounting. He said the RO dismissed application of the petitioner and refused to hold recounting of complete votes polled in the constituency. He said the RO carried out recounting and recounted 2,832 rejected votes only and out of them 200 votes were declared valid.
He said the after the recounting of rejected votes the defeat margin of the petitioner decreased from 680 to 605 votes.
Amir Sultan Cheema's counsel argued before the court that the Returning Officer (RO) rejected application of the petitioner and refused to hold recounting of the votes.
He said the RO violated fundamental rights of the petitioner and the election laws by not entertaining his request for the recounting.
Hearing multiple petitions for recounting of votes in different constituencies including NA-131, the court also sought record of NA-140, Pattoki from the ECP in petition of Rana Hayat of PML-N for recounting of votes. The court also directed the counsel of the petitioners to come up with arguments on a point whether the high court had the jurisdiction to interfere in the matter after the consolidation of the results. The court rose for Friday (today).
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