Daily Times

Former foreign minister Khawaja Asif remained unbeaten after a recount of votes in Sialkot’s NA-73 constituency on Sunday.

The vote recount was completed in NA-73 with Asif receiving 45 more votes than before. The vote count of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI)’s Muhammad Usman Dar, who had requested the re-tally in the constituency, increased by 132 but he still remained behind the PML-N leader.

Asif had secured 116,957 votes during the July 25 polls which after the recount stood at 117,002. Meanwhile, Dar’s vote count increased from 115,464 to 115,596.

PML-N heavyweight Khawaja Asif has remained unbeatable in NA-73 for the sixth consecutive time.

Meanwhile, recounting of ballot papers in PP-291, PP-292, PP-285 and NA-190 constituencies began on Sunday after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) accepted multiple pleas for recounting and directed that the results be held.

PML-N candidate Mehmood Qadir Leghari had moved the ECP for a recount in PP-291; PML-N candidate Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari sought a recount in PP-292; independent candidate Mir Badshah Qaisrani sought a recount in PP-285; and PTI candidate Zulfiqar Ali Khan Khosa sought a recount in NA-190.

Awais Leghari, who had contested the election on PML-N ticket, was defeated with a slim margin of 253 votes by PTI candidate Muhammed Khan, while Mahmood Qadir of the PML-N was defeated by Mohiuddin Khosa of the PTI with a margin of 1,808 votes. Similarly, PTI’s Khawaja Dawood had defeated Mir Badshah Qaisrani in PP-285 with a margin of 1,528 votes.

Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khan Khosa was initially declared the winner in NA-190 (Dera Ghazi Khan), but hours later the returning officer issued a revised Form-47 (provisional consolidated statement of results) with the note that a “clerical error” had resulted in Zulfiqar being wrongly declared the winner.

The actual winner from the constituency, as per the latest notification, was Zulfiqar’s cousin, independent candidate Amjad Farooq Khosa.

Initial results showed that Zulfiqar had won by a slim margin of 115 votes, whereas according to the latest notification, Amjad won the seat with a margin of 219 votes.

Subsequently, Khosa challenged the results, saying that the second notification was issued without his presence at the time of recount.

The ECP subsequently ordered recounting under Section 5 of Article 95 of the Election Act 2017.

Moreover, the re-tabulation of votes also concluded in NA-33, Hangu and PTI’s Khial Zaman remained winner.

The PTI leader received 735 more votes in the recount, which was done on the request of MMA’s Atiqur Rehman, who emerged as a runner-up during the 2018 General Election.

As per the results of the recount, 28,703 votes were cast in favour of the PTI leader while the MMA leader remained on second position with 27,968 votes.

Also, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan leader Farooq Sattar submitted a plea on Sunday for recount in two constituencies NA-245 and NA-247, from where he contested the polls but failed to grab a Lower House seat.

Published in Daily Times, July 30^th 2018.