Supreme Court overturns LHC ruling, confirms victory of PLMN candidates

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan overturned a ruling by the Lahore High Court (LHC) and confirmed the election victories of three Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidates.

A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa and including Justice Aqeel Abbasi and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan, reached a 2-1 verdict, with Justice Abbasi issuing a dissenting opinion.

The case concerned the February elections in constituencies NA-154 Lodhran, NA-81 Gujranwala, and NA-79 Gujranwala. The Supreme Court upheld the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision affirming the victories of Abdul Rehman Kanju, Azhar Qayyum Nahra, and Zulfikar Ahmed.

Azhar Nahra had contested the LHC’s decision to suspend his victory notification for NA-81. Initially, Chaudhry Bilal, an independent candidate supported by PTI, was declared the winner by 7,791 votes.

However, after Nahra requested a recount, the ECP later declared him the winner by 3,100 votes, despite around 10,000 of his votes being invalidated.

Bilal challenged the ECP’s decision in the LHC, which on April 4, nullified Nahra’s victory notification for NA-81. The court also ruled that the ECP could not address complaints about electoral disputes once election tribunals were established.