LHC orders vote recount in NA-131, Imran to challenge verdict in SC

LAHORE (92 News) – Justice Mamoonur Rashid of the Lahore High Court has accepted the plea of Khawaja Saad Rafique and ordered the vote recount in the NA-131 constituency. The court also ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to stop the victory notification of Imran Khan. Meanwhile, PTI chairman Imran Khan has announced to challenge the LHC verdict in the Supreme Court. He has directed Babar Awan to prepare the case file for moving the SC. Khawaja Saad Rafique had approached the LHC for the vote recount in his constituency after the returning officer dismissed his application. According to the petitioner, a large number of irregularities had been witnessed by him and his polling agents but no legal action was taken in this regard. His polling agents, he contended, were not provided Form 45 and they were forcibly ejected from the counting process. He asserted that although he had won the election by securing a clear margin, the provisional result for his constituency was deliberately withheld to manipulate the actual vote count. According to him, presiding officers of various polling stations had gone missing and no returning officer or ECP representative was willing to disclose relevant information to the petitioner after the polling on July 25 and the next day. Rafiq pointed out that he had filed an application for vote recount on July 26 and a notice in this regard was issued by the returning officer concerned on July 27. He said that he was not in possession of the consolidated results before filing his application for recount. He said that had fulfilled all legal requirements prescribed in Section 95 of the Election Act, necessitating the returning officer to order the recount. He asserted that the returning officer had dismissed his application without merit, violating provisions of Section 95 of the Election Act. He also requested the court to set aside the returning officer’s order dismissing his application for vote recount.