Supreme Court orders re-election in NA-19, Haripur

ISLAMABAD: A three-member bench of the Supreme Court on Friday ordered re-election in NA-19, Haripur.
The bench, headed by Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja, gave the verdict which had earlier been reserved.The verdict was given in the review plea filed by the PTI’s losing candidate Raja Amir Zaman against the PML-N MNA Umar Ayub Khan.
Earlier, the seat was won by Raja Amir Zaman in May 2013 general elections with 116,949 votes.His victory was challenged by Umar Ayub Khan claiming rigging at some polling stations. Umar got 114,807 votes.
In January 2014 re-polling was carried out in seven polling stations of the constituency upon the orders of the election tribunal. Umar Ayub secured the seat by a margin of 622 votes.Raja Amir Zaman had challenged the results in an election tribunal. The tribunal declared Ayub as the winning candidate. Zaman approached the Supreme Court against the tribunal’s decision.
After the initial hearings, the SC also upheld the tribunal’s decision. Following the SC verdict, Zaman filed a review plea.The SC has now given its verdict ordering the PML-N candidate to return the salaries he had drawn so far as MNA.The apex court has now ordered re-election in the constituency.