ISLAMABAD – The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Monday overturned the decision of the Lahore High Court (LHC) and confirmed success of three Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidates.
A SC three-member bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa announced the verdict with a 2-1 majority.
Justice Aqeel Abbasi dissented from the majority opinion, which was supported by Chief Justice Isa and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan.
The objections were related to the February elections in constituencies NA-154 Lodhran, NA-81 Gujranwala and NA-79 Gujranwala.
The Supreme Court reinstated the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision recognizing Abdul Rehman Kanju, Azhar Qayyum Nahra and Zulfikar Ahmed as the successful candidates.
Azhar Nahra had contested the LHC’s suspension of his victory notification for NA-81. Initially, PTI-affiliated independent candidate Chaudhry Bilal had been declared the winner by a margin of 7,791 votes in February. However, after Nahra requested a recount, the ECP later declared Nahra the winner by a margin of 3,100 votes.
During the recount process, approximately 10,000 of Nahra’s votes were invalidated.
Bilal challenged the ECP’s decision in the LHC, which, on April 4, annulled the victory notification for Azhar Nahra in NA-81. The court also ruled that the ECP could not address complaints about election disputes once election tribunals had been established.
