ECP told to notify Rana Sana, PTI's Farrukh Habib win on NA seats
Justice Mamoonur Rashid dismissed two separate petitions filed by Abid Sher Ali and PTI's Dr Nisar.
LAHORE (Dunya News) – The Lahore High Court (LHC) Tuesday directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to notify victory of PTI and PML-N candidates from NA-108 and 106 constituencies in Faisalabad.
Justice Mamoonur Rashid while dismissing petition filed by PML-N’s Abid Sher Ali requesting recounting in NA-108 asked the electoral commission to issue the victory notifications of Farrukh Habib and Rana Sanaullah.
Abid Sher Ali had challenged the victory of PTI’s Farrukh Habib pleading that the returned candidate won by a margin of 1,201 votes and the returning officer denied further recounting on ballot papers.
According to revised results, Habib bagged 112,029 votes while Abid Sher Ali secured 110,828 votes in the election for Faisalabad’s NA-108 constituency.
The court also dismissed petition by Sanaullah’s rival candidate in NA-106 constituency, Dr Nisar, who had pleaded that the returning officer stopped the recounting process after reopening 27 ballot boxes.
The court had earlier restrained the ECP from issuing the victory notification of former Punjab law minister Rana Sanaullah in NA-106 Faisalabad constituency.
PTI candidate Dr Nisar Ahmed had challenged the victory of PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah from NA-106 pleading that the former law minister allegedly caused harm to the sanctity of Islam by saying that welcoming Nawaz was a bigger task as compared to performing Hajj.
A resident of Faisalabad’s Ghulam Muhammad Abad area named Javed Arshad last week had also filed a petition against Rana Sanaullah over hurting religious sentiments.
The petitioner alleged that Rana Sanaullah hurt sentiments of Muslims by terming Nawaz Sharif’s reception as biggest and more sacred act than Hajj [annual Islamic pilgrimage to Makkah]. The petitioner further accused Sanaullah of sacrilege.
The petition sought registration of case against the PML-N stalwart and initiation of legal action against him.
Sanaullah faced severe backlash over his statement in which he allegeldy stated that attending PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif’s reception [on July 13] was an act bigger and sacred than Hajj. People from all walks of life has condemned the statement and demanded an apology from Rana Sanaullah.
However, Sanaullah asserted that his statement was quoted out of context and was misunderstood.
