NA-248 votes to be recounted today on PTI candidate’s plea

A recount of the votes cast in National Assembly constituency NA-248 Karachi in the July 25 general elections will be held on Saturday (today).

The votes are being recounted on the basis of an application filed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate, Sardar Abdul Aziz, who is unofficially declared to have lost the contest.

The result issued by the returning officer of NA-248 Karachi West-1 declared Abdul Qadir Patel of the Pakistan Peoples Party the winning candidate with 35,124 votes, while Sardar Abdul Aziz remained the runner-up with 34,101 votes.

The returning officer of the constituency has summoned all the candidates and their polling agents at 10am today for the recount of the ballots. Earlier, reports said the district returning officer of the area had reportedly said that the announcement of the result of the constituency had been unduly delayed as the presiding officers of eight polling stations were missing with the results of their polling stations.

The returning officer announced the result in this situation, causing reservations among the contesting candidates, reports said.

The recounting of the votes will be held at the Government Technical College in District West. PTI activists from the area expressed the resolve that they would never allow change in the result of the constituency.

NA 243 result challenged

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan leader Ali Raza Abidi has challenged Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan’s victory in NA-243 Karachi, INP added.

Abidi has written to the ECP Rangers director general and head of the Sindh police challenging the results. He has also sent a copy of the letter to the returning officers’ office.

In the letter, he claimed that rigging took place in the constituency and polling agents were told to leave the room when the votes were counted which, he said, is against the law.

MQM’s candidate from NA-239 Karachi, Khawaja Sohail Mansoor, has also challenged the results in his constituency where PTI’s Muhammad Akram won. He also claimed that polling agents were forced to leave the room when the ballot papers were counted.