PTI's Zulfiqar Khosa enjoys election victory, but for a few hours only
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Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) candidate and chief of the Khosa tribe, Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khan Khosa, was declared the winner on the NA-190 constituency of Dera Ghazi Khan.
His supporters started celebrating soon after the result was announced on Thursday.
Hours later, however, returning officer (RO) Munir Hussain Gill issued a revised Form-47 (Provisional Consolidated Statement of Results form) with the note that a "clerical error" had resulted in Zulfiqar being wrongly declared the candidate who bagged the highest votes.
The actual winner from the constituency, as per the latest notification, is Zulfiqar's cousin — independent candidate Amjad Farooq Khosa.
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After he was not issued a PML-N ticket, Amjad had decided to leave the party and contest the July 25 polls as an independent on the 'bucket' symbol. He subsequently received the support of JUI in the race for NA-190.
His rival, PML-N dissident and former Punjab governor Zulfiqar, had joined the PTI in June.
Zulfiqar had started receiving congratulations after the first Form-47 issued by the RO showed that he narrowly won by bagging 71,964 votes against Amjad, who obtained 71,854 votes.
However, a note on the revised Form-47 said there had been a clerical error while entering the number of votes obtained by Amjad Khosa at polling station No. 205 Boys Middle School Mohsinabad in the result management system (RMS).
"After rectification of the clerical error, the revised Form-47 has been compiled," it added.
As per the revised notification Amjad bagged 72,183 votes against Zulfiqar Khosa, who obtained 71,964 votes.
Zulfiqar told Dawn he would challenge the results, saying: "The second notification was issued without my presence at the time of recount."
Meanwhile, Zulfiqar's younger son, Dost Muhammed Khan Khosa, contested as an independent candidate on the symbol of Jeep against PTI candidate Dr Shaheena Najeeb in PP-289 and lost.
Interestingly, Zulfiqar, a PTI candidate himself, had steered his son's election campaign against PTI's Dr Shaheena.
