Sindh High Court gives a blow to the PTI, already struggling in number game for NA
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KARACHI - The Sindh High Court (SHC) gave a blow to the Pakistan Tehreek e Insaaf already struggling for numbers in the National Assembly.
SHC stopped the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) from notifying the names of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders as returned candidates in three of Karachi’s constituencies until August 10.
The order came on the petitions of the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) NA-237 (Malir-II) candidate Abdul Hakeem Baloch, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) NA-249 (West-II) candidate Shehbaz Sharif and the party’s PS-116 (West-V) candidate Saleheen Tanoli, who seek recounting of the ballots cast in the three constituencies.
The counsel for PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif said his client had contested last month’s general election for the National Assembly constituency NA-249 and secured 34,626 votes while the PTI’s candidate Faisal Vawda received 35,349 votes.
Sharif’s representative told the high court that there is a difference of only 723 votes between his client and the PTI’s candidate, while the number of the rejected votes in the constituency stands at 2,684.
He said the petitioner had submitted an application for a vote recount to the relevant returning officer, but the plea was rejected despite the fact that it is the RO’s responsibility to conduct the recount in accordance with Section 95 (Consolidation of results) of the Elections Act.
