KARACHI, Jan 9: The newly appointed returning officer of the Arts Council elections, Raeesuddin Paracha, postponed the recounting of votes on Sunday afternoon when applicants boycotted the process.

Mr Paracha, who is also executive district officer of the city government's investment promotion and enterprise department, told Dawn that six candidates who had lost the Dec 26 elections of the Arts Council had requested that their votes be recounted.

The candidates were Ibrahim Nafees, Naheed Raza, Najmuddin Shaikh, Syed Abdul Basit, Farah Nadeem and Ghulam Mohammad (Gulab Chandio). "Only Mr Shaikh and Mr Chandio appeared in person. Ms Nadeem sent a representative while the remaining three candidates did not show up.

My instructions were to recount the votes of these candidates. But Mr Shaikh insisted that the votes of all the candidates who had taken part in the Dec 26 polls of the Arts Council be recounted. We, therefore, had no option but to postpone the recounting process," he said.