PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MPA Arbab Akbar Hayat got a lead of 1,933 votes against the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) candidate in the recounting of the votes for the provincial assembly constituency PK-8. The commission comprising Senior Civil Judge, Peshawar, Aurangzeb Khan and Shafiq Ahmad Khattak, a representative of the Election Commission of Pakistan, supervised the recounting process in the presence of Akbar Hayat and the petitioner Asif Iqbal Daudzai of the JUI-F. The recounting of votes in PK-8 was held on the order of the Election Tribunal on the application of Asif Iqbal Daudzai.As per the recounting details, the bags of all the 98 polling stations were opened. However, 13 polling bags were found missing. The recounted valid votes of the PML-N MPA Akbar Hayat were 11,444, whereas Asif Iqbal Daudzai got 9,511 votes.The commission would submit the report of the recounting to the Election Tribunal in the next hearing on April 27. On April 2, the Election Tribunal, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, had ordered recounting of ballots in the PK-8 constituency after the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) completed the verification of votes. The Election Tribunal judge, Justice (Retd) Shah Jee Rehman, issued the order on the application of the losing candidate Asif Iqbal Daudzai, who had challenged Arbab Akbar Hayat’s victory in the May 2013 general election.He had submitted that thousands of votes were declared illegal in the Nadra verification report and thus the votes ought to be recounted.
