LAHORE: An election tribunal in Pakistan's Punjab province on Tuesday dismissed a petition challenging the victory of three-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in the February 2024 general elections.
Opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) jailed leader Yasmin Rashid had challenged Sharif's victory from Lahore's NA-130.
She alleged that the PMLN chief was declared the winner on Form-47 even though he lost the National Assembly seat to her by a margin of thousands of votes.
Imran Khan's PTI alleged that the military establishment snatched its mandate in the last polls and installed a puppet government of Shehbaz Sharif in the Centre and Maryam Nawaz in Punjab through the result changed Form-47.
Dozens of PTI losing candidates challenged the victory of PMLN in Punjab, but only a few of the petitions have been accepted.
"On the plea of Yasmin Rashid, the tribunal led by retired Justice Rana Zahid Mahmood on Tuesday dismissed it on "technical grounds" which was filed in April 2024," a court official said.
The petitioner failed to comply with the requirements under the Election Act 2017 for filing an election petition, the tribunal observed.
According to her petition, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) issued Sharif's victory notification in violation of the law.
"The ECP manipulated the election results to ensure that Nawaz Sharif is declared successful despite losing comprehensively by the vote of the people of NA-130 constituency," the petitioner argued.
According to the ECP, Sharif won the general election in the NA-130 constituency with 179,310 votes, while Rashid came second with 104,485 votes.
The PTI alleged that the elder Sharif couldn't even win enough votes as the ECP "gifted" him over 100,000 votes to ensure his victory on the behest of the military establishment.