LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday dismissed the petitions against the victory of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif from NA-130, PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif from PP-164 and his son Hamza Shehbaz from PP-147 with a direction to the petitioners to appro­a­­ch the Election Commis­sion of Pakistan (ECP).

PTI’s Punjab chapter president Dr Yasmin Rashid, who lost election from NA-130, had challenged the victory of Nawaz Sharif.

Her counsel argued that respondent Sharif lost the election as per record of Form 45, yet the returning officer (RO) declared him successful on the basis of alleged manipulated Form 47.

The court was requested to set aside the ECP result announced on the basis of Form 47 and order it to hold a recounting of votes.

PTI-supported independent candidates You­saf Mayo and Mohammad Madni assailed the victories of Shehbaz from PP-164 and Hamza from PP-147, respectively.

Both petitioners also took similar grounds to question the result announced by the ECP in the provincial assembly’s constituencies.

They said the law required the RO to consolidate the final results in the presence of all candidates.

However, they said, the ROs expelled them from polling stations and did not allow them to witness the compilation of the results.

Justice Ali Baqar Najafi dismissed all the petitions and observed that the constitutional petitions were not maintainable before the high court without availing the first remedy under the law.

The other day, Justice Najafi had also dismissed a set of petitions against PML-N and IPP leaders including Maryam Nawaz, Awn Chaudhry, Khawaja Asif and Aleem Khan.

The judge ruled that the petitioners should file a representation before the ECP prior to invoking the extraordinary jurisdiction of the high court.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2024