Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shaukat Yousafzai on Sunday said he would challenge the annulment of election to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly seat from Shangla constituency (PK-23) by Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). The PTI leader had emerged victorious in the election from PK-23 that was nullified because only 5% of the voters were women whereas the Election Act 2017 requires at least 10% women votes out of the total votes cast in all electoral contests.
Yousafzai told the media that the ECP's decision transcended his comprehension because, according to him, it negated the truth. He announced taking the matter to high court.
"No contestant in the constituency had complained of low turnout of female voters," he said. Answering a question about formation of the provincial government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he said, a party meeting in this regard would be held today.
In PK-23 (Shangla), 13 candidates were in the run for the provincial Assembly seat. The candidates included PTI Shaukat Yousafzai who got 17,399 votes, Muhammad Rashad Khan of PML-N bagged 15,533 votes, Mutawakil Khan of ANP was polled 13,942 votes, Afsar-ul-Mulk of PPP secured 9,636 votes, Muhammad Yar of MMA had 5,922, Sarbaz Khan, an independent contestant got 1479 and seven others independents also got votes.
It was an uphill task for PTI's leader to secure a seat in Shangla as the area was stronghold of Pakistan Muslim League-N's leader Ameer Muqam. Yousafzai was sure of Peshawar seat where he won election in 2013 general elections. Despite his reservation, senior officials and regulatory body of the election commission declared the results of the July 25 poll in the constituency null and void.
On August 7, the Election Commission heard the case regarding low turnout of women in Shangla. However, the winning candidate and the applicant did not show up at the hearing. The chief election commissioner ordered that the notification be stopped and summoned Yousafzai on the next date of hearing.
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