ECP restrained from notifying Rana Sanaullah's victory on NA-106

Dunya News

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate Dr Nisar Ahmed had challenged the victory of Sanaullah.

LAHORE (Dunya News) – The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday stopped the electoral commission (ECP) from issuing the victory notification of former Punjab law minister Rana Sanaullah in NA-106 Faisalabad constituency.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate Dr Nisar Ahmed had challenged the victory of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Rana Sanaullah from NA-106 pleading that the former law minister had 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’s 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.