PTI runners-up seek recount of votes

Both petitioners lost NA seats to PML-N’s candidates

LAHORE: Two Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf candidates who lost in the general elections have now moved to the Lahore High Court seeking a recount of votes as well as declaring the returning officers order null and void.

The two applicants Amir Sultan Cheema and Muhammad Ilyas Chaudhary were contesting for the National assembly seats from NA-91 and NA-71 respectively. Both of them were defeated by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s candidates.



Cheema who came in second to PML-N’s Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhatti has filed a petition in the LHC challenging the order of a RO who had dismissed his application for a recount in NA-91.The petitioner implored the court that he had obtained 1,10,246 votes while Bhatti grabbed 1,10,525 votes thus the winning margin was of only 279 votes. Cheema also claimed that demanding a recount was his constitutional right and prayed the court to nullify the RO’s order and accept his petition for the recount.



Similarly, another PTI runner-up Muhammad Illyas Chaudhary, contesting from NA-71, filed a petition seeking recount of his votes in aforesaid electorate. He contended that soon after PML-N’s Abid Raza was announced the winner, he submitted an application before the RO for recount of votes, which was rejected. He also prayed the court order a recount of the votes in his constituency.