ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday permitted Muqeem Khan Khoso, who contested on a Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) ticket from PS-14 Jacobabad-II to take oath as a winning candidate.

A three-judge bench, comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry and Justice Iqbal Hameedud Din, passed this order while rejecting the appeal filed by Muhammad Aslam Abro.

Earlier, Abro – a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate – was declared winner by Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) with a slight difference of votes.

However, Khoso requested to the ECP for recounting the votes which was accepted and later on the result was overturned. Subsequently, Khoso was declared a winning contestant with difference of just 62 votes. A notification of his success was also issued.

Later, Abro filed an application against the ECP decision in Sindh High Court (SHC) but the decision remained unchanged.

Though, the PML-N candidate was not satisfied by the SHC verdict so he filed an appeal in the apex court, praying to declare that decision as null and void.

The Supreme Court, while fixing the matter for hearing, had passed stay order for not taking oath from Khoso till the destiny of this appeal.

Even so, Hafiz Pirzada, counsel for Khoso, pleaded the case and apprised the bench that his client was undergoing through a legal process and no claim would climb up against him.

While convincing from arguments, the bench rejected the appeal and allowed Muqeem Khan Khoso to take oath as a winning candidate from PS-14.