NA-108: Abid challenges PTI's candidate's election

A PML-N leader and former state minister Abid Sher Ali has challenged the election of PTI candidate Farrukh Habib from NA-108 through an election petition before the Lahore High Court (LHC). The petitioner contended that the recounting of rejected as well as all the valid votes, was on and about 80 polling stations, out of 394 polling stations was completed, when he submitted an application to the Returning Officer (RO) for declaring the votes as valid which had been illegally declared as invalid on the ground of absence of signatures of the presiding officers, despite bearing official stamp on the back, or on the ground of affixing the stamps in front on the name and election symbol of the petitioner. However, he said, the RO arbitrarily rejected his application, stopped further recounting and issued notice to the parties for final consolidation on the same day.
He submits that several grave irregularities were found during the process of recounting of votes strengthening the allegations of the petitioner about connivance and collusion of the polling staff with the returned candidate.
He, therefore, contended that that the election of the respondent returned candidate is void and of no legal effect. He, therefore, prayed to the court to term the election of the respondent void and declared the petitioner as a returned candidate.