LHC suspends victory notification of PML-N’s Nahra in NA-81

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday suspended the ECP’s notification, declaring Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s Azhar Qayyum Nahra as winner from NA-81 Gujranwala after a vote recount.

The LHC issued the order on a petition filed by Sunni Ittehad Council’s Bilal Aijaz, challenging Azhar Qayyum’s victory in vote recount.

Bilal Aijaz, an independent candidate backed by PTI, was declared the winner with 117,717 votes while the PML-N candidate finished as runner-up with 109,926 votes.

Bilal in his plea stated that he was declared the winner with the lead of 8,000 votes, but in the vote recount, he was declared runner-up and PML-N’s candidate was declared winner.

However, following a request for a recount of votes, the Election Commission of Pakistan declared the recount in favour of the opposition candidate, Azhar Qayyum.

The plea further said that the returning officer had reduced petitioner’s votes by 2,500 during the recounting process, and sought cancellation of the PML-N leader’s victory notification.

In response to the petition, the LHC suspend the notification of PML-N’s candidate victory, pending further investigation into the matter.

It is to be noted that on March 17, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) notified the victory of PML-N’s Azhar Qayyum as MNA from NA-81 after a recount.

Earlier on Monday, Justice Shams Mehmood Mirza of the Lahore High Court suspended the proceedings for vote recount in the provincial assembly constituency, PP-59, Gujranwala, and sought replies from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and others.

The LHC passed the stay order on a petition by PTI-backed independent candidate Nasir Cheema, who was declared winner from PP-56.

He was aggrieved by proceedings before the ECP on an application of his rival candidate Bilal Tarar of the PML-N, seeking recounting of votes in the constituency.