Sindh HC dismisses defeated JI candidate's rigging plea on PTI win in Karachi

The Sindh High Court has dismissed a plea from a Jamaat-e-Islami candidate, who challenged the results of the election of Karachi's PS-39 seat, which has been won by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.

The move from the high court comes while hearing a string of appeals against the outcome of the elections.

According to the Express Tribune, upholding the returning officer's decision, the bench headed by Justice Faisal Arab rejected the plea through a short order.

Abdul Razzak had taken the ECP secretary, the district returning officer, returning officer, Peerabad police's station house officer and his political rival Hafizuddin to the court on the allegations of rigging.

He claimed the Form XIV issued by most of the presiding officers confirmed that he had received 11,487 votes against Hafizuddin, who had secured 9,452 votes.

But according to the results, Hafizuddin reportedly received 15,432 votes out of the total 62,772 registered votes, including 61,656 valid and 1,116 rejected ones.

According to the report, the petitioner alleged that the candidate who won had indulged in massive rigging, illegalities and corrupt practices during the election.

In his plea, Razzak had pleaded to the court to declare him as returned candidate for having obtained more votes than his rival PTI candidate.

After preliminary hearing arguments from both sides, the bench dismissed the pleas by passing a short order, the report added.