• RO issues Form 27 declaring PPP’s Rathore winner despite ‘assurance’, says rival
• Party demands recount of votes cast in LA-17 polling stations

MUZAFFARABAD: The election of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Faisal Mumtaz Rathore from LA-17 (Haveli) was thrown into fresh controversy on Wednesday after the returning officer (RO) issued the Form 27 declaring him the winner despite an assurance, according to his PML-N rival Engr Mohsin Aziz, that the result would not be announced until his complaint was taken up by the Election Commission.

The development triggered fresh tensions in Haveli district, where PML-N workers announced a complete shutter-down strike and protest from Thursday (today) for an indefinite period.

At a meeting in Forward Kahuta, chaired by PML-N Haveli President Syed Abid Bukhari, participants demanded that the Election Commission open all polling bags from LA-17, order a recount and determine the result on the basis of the original returns issued by presiding officers at the polling stations. They warned that the scope of the protest would be expanded if the demand was not accepted. Polling in the constituency was held on Monday amid serious allegations and counter-allegations of rigging by all three major contestants — PM Rathore of the PPP, Mr Aziz of the PML-N and independent candidate Khawaja Tariq Saeed.

Late on Monday evening, thousands of supporters of Mr Aziz gathered at the district courts, claiming that the results provided to polling agents by presiding officers on Form 24 showed their candidate leading Mr Rathore by more than 8,000 votes, but that the RO was subsequently preparing results in favour of the prime minister.

The protest ended on Tuesday after Mr Aziz said in a video message that the RO had given him a written undertaking that Form 27 would not be issued until his claim was decided by the Election Commission in Muzaffarabad.

On Tuesday, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) retired Justice Ghulam Mustafa Mughal told Dawn that the commission would take a decision after the polling bags and relevant election record reached its office. He had reportedly given a similar assurance to Mr Aziz over the phone.

District Returning Officer (DRO) Waheed Mughal and RO Asheer Chughtai, both members of the subordinate judiciary, were evacuated from their offices in Forward Kahuta along with the polling bags with the help of the army’s Quick Response Force (QRF). They reached Muzaffarabad by midnight.

However, the RO subsequently issued Form 27 after midnight, dated Aug 11, declaring Mr Rathore the winner with 33,872 votes. Mr Aziz secured 32,354 votes, followed by Mr Saeed with 12,538 and Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party’s Amir Nazir Chaudhry with 5,405.

Hours later, Prime Minister Rathore said on X that his “remarkable win had been officially notified”.

The issuance of Form 27, however, failed to settle the dispute, with reports from Haveli suggesting that the situation was becoming tense again.

In a video message recorded in Muzaffarabad, Mr Aziz reiterated his allegation that the Form 24s handed over to polling agents of all nine participating candidates contained the genuine results, while different figures had subsequently been taken into consideration by the RO.

He offered to have just two polling bags, rather than all of them, opened from areas where he alleged the results had been changed. If his allegation proved wrong, he said, he would apologise and congratulate Mr Rathore.

Mr Aziz also claimed that the Election Act, 2020, made it obligatory for the RO to open polling bags following a complaint by any candidate. He said that when they asked Mr Chughtai to take the step, the RO maintained that he was unaware of the provision and did not have a copy of the Act available with him.

Recount application

On Wednesday, senior lawyers Raja Sajjad Ahmed and Chaudhry Ghulam Nabi submitted an application to the CEC, seeking a recount of votes polled in LA-17 over alleged tampering with the results. The Election Commission announced that it would take up the matter at 10am on Thursday.

In a post on X, PML-N leader and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry called for a transparent investigation into the rigging complaint filed by Mr Aziz.

Mr Aziz, however, said he had little hope from the commission after what he described as its failure to prevent the issuance of the “unlawful Form 27”.

“I will take my case to the people’s court apart from the superior judiciary,” he said.

Polls ‘rigged and violent’

Against this backdrop, the PPP also criticised the conduct of the AJK elections, with a high-level meeting of the party in Islamabad describing the polls as “rigged and violent”.

The meeting, chaired by PPP women’s wing president and AJK affairs in-charge Faryal Talpur, slammed the phase-wise conduct of the elections and demanded immediate completion of polling in the remaining two districts of the third phase and seven constituencies of Poonch so that the Legislative Assembly could be fully constituted.

The participants raised questions over the suspension of internet services, the shortage of polling material and staff at some polling stations and alleged inadequate security arrangements.

Ms Talpur said the PPP was the representative party of the people of AJK and had continued to receive strong public support despite challenging circumstances.

Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2026