ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday rejected a plea by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), seeking a recount of votes in PP-7 Kahuta (Rawalpindi-II) – a seat which the party lost to ruling PML-N in the recently held by-polls in Punjab by a razor-thin margin of 49 votes.

The decision was announced by a five-member bench headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikander Sultan Raja comprising Nisar Ahmed Durrani, Shah Muhammad Jatoi, Babar Hassan Bharwana, and former Justice Ikramullah Khan, the ECP members – heard the case.

In a brief ruling, the CEC said that the petitioner, PTI candidate Shabbir Awan, could neither prove any fraud or irregularity during the polls nor was he able to state the reasons for the recount.

“The appellant has failed to give the reasons for a recount of the votes in the by-polls”, he declared.

On July 20, the plea by the PTI candidate for a recount of votes had been rejected by returning officer (RO) of PP-7 Kahuta (Rawalpindi-II), but the same day, Lahore high Court (LHC)’s Rawalpindi bench ordered the ECP not to issue the results and resolve the matter first.

The PTI candidate then filed an application with the ECP, seeking a recount of votes for the constituency claiming rigging.

But, the ECP bench headed by the CEC plainly declared: “the petitioner could not prove rigging…he also failed to prove the need to recount votes”.

Minutes after the ECP verdict, PTI leader Shafqat Mahmood, in a statement on Twitter, called the ECP’s verdict against the law.

“The loss of neutrality and integrity by the ECP has far reaching consequences for democracy”, he tweeted.

The PTI’s petition had claimed the results were uploaded on the RTS system.

During the hearing, the CEC observed that PTI had not filed any application until 5 pm on the day of the election.

“You submitted a request to the R&I department but withdrew it after 10 minutes”, he noted, saying that even after that the PTI blamed the ECP.

The CEC then called the officials of the R&I branch and asked them to submit a written account of everything that happened on the day of the polls, adding that all the matters should be clear.

On this, the counsel for Awan said that his client was present in court at the orders of the LHC.

Subsequently, reading out the PTI’s petition which was submitted to the high court, the CEC refuted the party’s claim that the RTS system was used during the by-polls.

At the outset of the hearing, Awan’s counsel said that they had approached the court as the margin between the votes of the two parties was very thin.

“Our law states that if the margin is less than five percent, a request for a recount can be filed”, he added.

He contended that as soon as the results were announced, his client had immediately approached the RO and later the court for a recount.

The counsel for PML-N’s Raja Sagheer called the PTI’s request baseless, adding the PTI failed to prove their point even in front of the returning officer.

“At first they were talking about the entire constituency. Now they are talking about 21 polling stations”, he said, adding that PTI’s stance was invalid because it kept changing.

As per unofficial results announced on July 17, the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Raja Sagheer Ahmed had won the by-polls from PP-7 by a razor-thin margin of 49 votes.

Ahmed had bagged 68,906 votes, whereas, the PTI’s Awan managed to bag 68,857 votes.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022