MANSEHRA: Returning officer of Mansehra’s PK-40 constituency Saleem Khan Jadoon on Tuesday oversaw the recounting of votes polled on Feb 8 for PK-40 Mansehra seats.

The RO’s staff members recounted votes in the presence of lawyers for election candidates including Sardar Shahjehan Yusuf of the PML-N and PTI-backed independent Abdul Shakoor Khan.

Vote recount was completed for 91 out of a total of 173 polling stations until the last reports came in.

The RO will announce election results after the completion of the current exercise.

The vote recount was ordered by the RO at the request of Mr Shakoor, who challenged Form 47 that declared the victory of Mr Yusuf by a thin margin of 328 votes.

Mr Yusuf moved the Election Commission of Pakistan against vote recounting.

However, an ECP panel comprising retired Justice Akramullah Khan and Babar Hussain Bharwana rejected the plea declaring that as the difference between the votes polled by Mr Shakoor and Mr Yusuf was less than five per cent, the RO’s act of ordering vote recount was right.

The PML-N nominee won the seat by getting 44,012votes against 43,680of the PTI-backed independent, according to Form 47 issued by the RO.

Meanwhile, MPA-elect Munir Hussain Lughmani’s lawyer nephew Saqib Lughmani has obtained a PhD degree after successfully defending his thesis on anti-corruption and accountability laws at the University of Peshawar.

He claimed he was the first in the Hazara Division to do a doctorate on that topic.

CRACKDOWN SOUGHT: PML-N election candidate Sardar Zahoor Ahmad on Wednesday moved the Federal Investigation Agency’s Cyber Crime Wing with a request for a crackdown on his character assassination on social media.

Mr Ahmad told reporters here that he was confident of winning election for PK-47 Mansehra-II but lost the contest to PTI-backed independent Babar Saleem Swati after his campaign was “shattered” by false corruption allegations on social media against him.

He said he had sought a formal FIA action against the culpable people under the Prevention of Electronic Crime Act, 2016.

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2024