Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi Bench on Wednesday referred the matter of recounting in the PP-7 constituency of Rawalpindi to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) after the returning officer (RO) turned down PTI’s plea on Tuesday night.
The RO in the order said that PTI’s candidate Shabir Awan could not provide substantial evidence of any irregularity throughout the polling process. In this constituency, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Raja Sagheer Ahmad secured victory by obtaining 68,906 votes while PTI candidate Col (retd) Shabir Awan bagged 68,857 votes after delay in the results. Sagheer defeated PTI’s candidate Awan with a narrow margin of 49 votes.
The bench had reserved the verdict after the losing candidate approached the court after facing rejection from RO. The court ordered Awan to appear before the ECP at 10am on Thursday. It directed the top poll body to carry out proceedings on the matter under Section 95(6) of the Election Act 2017. The bench also barred the RO from announcing results till ECP’s verdict in the case.
