RO orders recount in PP-07 Rawalpindi after PTI challenges result

ISLAMABAD: The returning officer (RO) in PP-07 Kahuta has ordered a recount in the constituency after PTI candidate Colonel (retd) Shabbir Awan challenged the results over losing the seat by mere 49 votes, ARY NEWS reported.

The PTI candidate has challenged the results and filed a plea with the RO for a recount and barring notification for the success of the PML-N candidate Raja Sagheer.

According to unofficial and unverified results, PML-N candidate Raja Sagheer secured 68,906 votes against the rival PTI candidate who lost by 49 votes after bagging 68,857 votes.

It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has emerged victorious in the majority of the seats in the crucial by-elections on 20 Punjab Assembly.

According to the unconfirmed and unofficial results, results of 20 seats have been finalised, with PTI clinching 15 and PML-N winning just four.

An independent candidate, Syed Muhammad Rafi ud Din, won PP-228 Lodhran V, with 45,020 votes as against PTI candidate Izzat Javaid Khan, who bagged 38,338.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has accepted the defeat, with party vice president Maryam Nawaz saying the party should accept the results “wholeheartedly”.

‘Imran Khan congratulates PTI workers’

Former Prime Minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan congratulated the party workers and voters over victory in Punjab by-elections.

“I want to first thank our PTI workers [and] voters of Punjab for defeating not just [PML-N] candidates but the entire state machinery, [especially] harassment by police and a totally biased [Election Commission of Pakistan],” Imran Khan wrote on Twitter.