Lahore (Staff Report/Agencies): The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to stay the notification of victory of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf's (PTI) Farrukh Habib against PML-N leader Abid Sher Ali.
Justice Shahid Karim issued the order on a petition filed by Abid Sher Ali against Habib’s victory.
Habib had emerged as the winner from Faisalabad's NA-108 and remained so despite an earlier recount.
Ali had approached the LHC earlier today after a notification issued by Returning Officer Shakeel Ahmed on Thursday showed that the PML-N leader had lost the poll by 1,201 votes to Habib, whose victory margin decreased by only 10 votes during the recount.
After hearing all arguments, Justice Karim directed ECP to withhold the notification. The court also issued notices to the commission and other parties, seeking their responses by August 7.
The same LHC judge also directed the ECP to withhold the notification of victory of PML-N candidate Hamid Hameed, who had won the election from NA-90 constituency of Sargodha.
PTI's Dr Nadia Aziz had filed a petition against Hameed's win by a lead of 8,000 votes.
The petitioner maintained that the counting of votes at polling stations in the said constituency was flawed and that the RO had rejected her request for a recount.
The court ordered the ECP to stay the notification. The commission, RO and other parties were directed to submit replies to the notices issued to them by August 7.