LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday set aside the victory notification of PML-N’s MPA Rana Muhammad Arshad from PP-133, Nankana Sahib.

Justice Shahid Karim passed the order on a writ petition by PTI-backed independent candidate Muhammad Atif.

The petitioner through his counsel pleaded that he was initially declared returned candidate with a margin of over 3,557 votes. However, he said, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) conducted a recount on an application of the respondent candidate.

He said the commission declared the respondent winner with a margin of 2,500 votes.

The counsel argued that the ECP could not intervene in the matter relating to the results after the completion of the election process. He said the application for the recount was filed after the issuance of the gazette notifications of the petitioner’s victory.

He said the election tribunals had also been constituted to hear the election petitions when the ECP took up the applications for the recount and issued the impugned notice to the petitioner.

He asked the court to set aside the ECP decision of holding the recounting of votes and the notification of the respondent’s victory.

A counsel for the ECP opposed the petition, saying the petitioner did not avail the first remedy of appeal before the commission.

Justice Karim allowed the petition and set aside the impugned notification of the ECP.

Previously, Justice Karim also allowed petitions of two PTI-backed independents against the recounting process in NA-79, Gujranwala, and NA-133, Kasur.

The judge had also struck down a decision of the ECP for a recount in NA-81 of Gujranwala restoring the victory of PTI-backed independent candidate Bilal Ijaz.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2024