The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Tuesday rejected the petition filed by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Shaukat Yousufzai against the Election Commission of Pakistan's (ECP) decision of ordering a re-election in Shangla's constituency of PK-23 over low turnout of women voters.

On August 10, the results of the polls in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly's constituency, where Yousafzai had emerged as the winner, were declared void by the ECP.

The Elections Act 2017 requires the ECP to declare an election null and void if women’s turnout in a constituency is less than 10 per cent of its total polled votes. Only 5.01pc votes of registered women voters were polled in PK-23.

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Yousafzai had earlier termed the ECP verdict "cruel", saying that the commission should have ordered the re-polling of female voters only instead of declaring the whole election void.

"It is not easy to hold elections in Shangla," he claimed. "We will suffer due to the re-election in the constituency."

A notification issued by the ECP states that only those candidates who contested the July 25 elections will be able to compete re-poll — scheduled for September 10 — under the same party symbols.

Shaukat Yousufzai had won PK-23 Shangla by obtaining 17,399 votes on the PTI's ticket.