LHC moved to withhold Rana Sanaullah's victory notification

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday adjourned a petition seeking to restrain the Election Commission of Pakistan from issuing a notification of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) leader Rana Sanaullah’s victory in NA-106, Faisalabad, ARY News reported.  

Justice Shahid Karim of the high court directed the petitioner to come up with arguments on next hearing, explaining whether the petition was maintainable or not.

The hearing was adjourned till August 6.

Petitioner Dr Nisar Ahmed pleaded with the court to direct the ECP to withhold its notification with regard to the PML-N leader’s win in NA-106 in the July 25 election.

A vote recount has been underway in the National Assembly constituency at the request Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) candidate Nisar Ahmed Jutt who lost the election to the PML-N leader.

It is pertinent to mention here that the ECP has asked the winning candidates to submit their election expenses to Returning Officers concerned till August 4 for issuing of official notification.

“The ECP had invited the attention of returned candidates to the provision of 98 (3) of the Election Act 2017 which inter alia provides that every returned candidate shall, within ten days from the poll of an election, submit a return of the election expenses under section 134 and the commission shall not notify in the official gazette the result of a returned candidate who fails to submit his/her return of election expenses” said a notification of ECP issued here Monday.

All successful candidates are bound to submit details of their expenditures within 10 days of polling while non-successful candidates are required to be submitted expenditure details within 30 days.