ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday dismissed the petition of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) candidate against the recounting of votes in Punjab Assembly’s constituency PP-100 Faisalabad.

PTI candidate Chaudhry Umair Wasi Zafar was declared the winner with a lead of about 4,000 votes and the notification of his success was also issued. However, on the application of the losing PML-N candidate, Khan Bahadar Dogar, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) ordered a recount, which was held on March 12 at the ECP office in Faisalabad. Following the recount of vote, the PML-N candidate turned out to be the winner.

After the conclusion of the Feb 8 general election and the consolidation process on Feb 10, Chaudhry Umair Wasi Zafar was declared winner with 48,928 votes. His rival, Khan Bahadur Dogar, obtained 44,433 votes as per Form-47.

The Election Commission notified the election results, following which Umair Wasi Zafar took oath as member of the Punjab Assembly on Feb 22.

In the meantime, Dogar filed an application with the ECP, contending that the consolidation proceedings had been conducted in his absence. The said application was decided and the returning officer was directed to recount the votes, including rejected ones, in the presence of the applicant and other contesting candidates within three days.

Justice Imtiaz heard the counsels for petitioner Umair Wasi Zafar, Khan Bahadur Dogar and the ECP and concluded that the petitioner “has failed to point out any illegality or infirmity or jurisdictional defect in the Impugned Order”.

“It is also not out of place to mention that recount has taken place since the filing of the instant writ petition. The petitioner has invoked the equitable jurisdiction of this court but has not pointed out any error in the result of such recount whereby the Respondent No. 3 [Dogar] has been declared the successful candidate nor has the petitioner instituted any legal proceedings before any other forum to challenge the same,” the court order said.

Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2024