PESHAWAR: Rejecting objections of two MPAs, an election tribunal here on Wednesday declared maintainable the election petitions of the two former PTI lawmakers challenging their declaration as returned candidates in the 2024 general elections.

The tribunal head, retired Justice Lal Jan Khattak, pronounced that it had turned down the objection petitions filed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz MPA Malik Tariq Awan and that of Pakistan Peoples Party-Parliamentarians Kiramatullah Khan Chagharmati.

Mr Awan had challenged the election petition filed by his rival candidate, Kamran Khan Bangash, a former provincial minister and leader of the PTI.

Similarly, Mr Kiramat objected to the petition filed against his election by former deputy speaker of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Mahmood Jan.

Declares petitions by rival candidates maintainable

Both Mr Bangash and Mr Jan had contested the 2024 general elections as independent candidates with the backing of the PTI.

According to poll results declared by the Election Commission of Pakistan, Mr Awan had received 20344 votes against 14030 votes received by Mr Bangash. Similarly, Mr Chagarmati had received 18527 votes against 14030 votes of Mr Jan.

Advocate Ali Gohar Durrani appeared for the petitioners and opposed the objection pleas of the two MPAs. He said that the election petitions were maintainable and could not be rejected on minor excuses.

The applicants had challenged the two petitions on technical grounds claiming that the petitioners had not met some basic requirements required for filing the petitions under the Elections Act, 2017.

Both the petitioners claimed that after the closure of polling, the polled votes were counted and duly-signed Forms 45 (election results in a polling station) were issued to their polling agents.

They claimed that according to those Forms-45 they had won the polls in their respective constituencies, but the concerned returning officers manipulated poll results and declared their rivals as returned candidates in the respective Form-47.

They said that Section 92 of the Election Act that required candidates or their polling agents to be present during election results compilation for provisional consolidation before the issuance of Form 47 was also violated.

The petitioners claimed that according to the Form-45 votes in their constituencies they were on the top.

They claimed that following the Form-45, the petitioner came for the poll results compilation for provisional consolidation before the returning officer, however no entry was allowed to the petitioners or their polling agents.

The petitioners said that in the morning they were informed that they had ended up not as a returned candidate as was the requirement per Form-45 poll results but instead their votes count were reduced and other candidates were declared as winners.

Both MPAs rejected their claims, saying according to official documents compiled in accordance with election results in polling stations, they won their respective seats.

Meanwhile, PTI leader Kamran Bangash told reporters that he had submitted all evidence to the tribunal in support of his petition and hoped to defend the mandate given to him by the voters of his constituency.

He regretted that it took the forum over two years just to decide his petition’s maintainability.

Mr Bangash hoped that his petition won’t face further delay and would reach its logical conclusion at the earliest.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2026