LAHORE: An election tribunal comprising a judge of the Lahore High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition of former provincial minister Rana Mashhood Ahmed Khan against the victory of PTI-backed independent MPA Misbah Wajid from PP-172, Lahore.

Justice Sultan Tanvir Ahmed, the tribunal member, announced the verdict on the petition, which also challenged a decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) of not conducting a vote recount in the constituency.

The tribunal had earlier reserved its decision on the maintainability of the petition.

Ms Wajid’s lawyer objected to the maintainability of the petition, arguing that such matters should be taken up with the Supreme Court rather than the Lahore High Court if the dispute involves a vote recount.

A counsel for Rana Mashhood, an adviser to the prime minister, had argued that the returning officer and the ECP as well refused to hold a vote recount and announced the final result of the 2024 general election held in the constituency. He asked the tribunal to set aside the impugned orders of the respondents and order the recounting of the votes.

The tribunal, however, declared the petition of Rana Mashhood non-maintainable and dismissed it.

Ms Wajid won the seat by securing 31,378 votes while Khan obtained 28,647 votes.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2025