The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday barred the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) from issuing results for Lahore’s National Assembly’s NA-128 constituency.
ECP had declared Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) candidate Aun Saqlain (Aun Chaudhry) against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed Salman Akram Raja.
According to results issued by ECP, Awn Chaudhry bagged 172,576 votes whereas Salman Akram Raja received 159,024 votes.
However, Salman Akram Raja moved the LHC against alleged anomaly in the result of NA-128 (Lahore). The plea was soon fixed for hearing.
During the hearing, Raja’s counsel Barrister Sameer Khosa argued that his client, who according to the results compiled from Form 45 had taken a decisive lead, was declared runner-up in Form 47.
He added that Salman Akram Raja was present at the Returning Officer’s (RO) office; however, he was not allowed to exercise his legal right to observe the vote-count process.
Hearing the petition, Justice Baqir Najafi summoned the RO of the concerned constituency, but the court was informed that he had mysteriously “gone missing.”
At the conclusion of his argument, the court issued an interim order, barring the electoral watchdog from implementing results based on Form 47.
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