PPP provincial chief challenges PK-18 results in PHC

Claims political agents were evicted from polling station, not provided with form-45

PESHAWER: With nearly 10 days passing after the elections, a candidate for a provincial assembly seat has decided to approach the courts to get the final, official results of the elections.

Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) Provincial President Engineer Humayun Khan had been contesting the general elections on the provincial assembly seat PK-18 Malakand Protected Area-I against 10 other candidates.

According to the unofficial results released by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), Humayun lost out to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Shakeel Ahmed. The latter garnering 33.347 votes as opposed to the former’s 25,503 votes.



However, Humayun claimed that the apex poll body has yet to provide him with the official results of the constituency.

He has now filed a writ petition in the Peshawar High Court (PHC), through Muzamil Shah Advocate, claiming that due to the “corrupt practices” of ECP officials and its allies on the election day, the announcement of PK-18 Malakand-I results should be declared null and void and without legal authority and that the election process should be repeated in the constituency.

Humayun further contended that he had informed the ECP about the irregularities committed during the July 25 elections, however, the top poll body did not offer any positive response.



Echoing other similar complaints from elsewhere, Humayun claimed that when vote counting started, polling agents of the party were directed to leave the polling station. When the polling agents resisted, they were forced out of the polling stations.

When they asked for the form-45 — which contains results — Humayun claimed that their request was turned down and the forms were directly submitted to the ECP without securing the polling agent’s signatures.

Humayun claimed that he had filed applications with the returning officer of the constituency before the results were consolidated, however, the application was rejected. Subsequently, another application was submitted to the ECP but was told that by that time form-49 with the consolidated results has already been communicated to the commission.