LAHORE: An election tribunal, comprising Justice Mamoon Rashid Sheikh of the Lahore High Court, on Wednesday gave one week time to former defence minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif for filing a reply to an election petition challenging his victory in the general election from NA-73.
The petition was filed by Usman Dar, runner-up PTI candidate, saying that Khawaja Asif had submitted unverified affidavits with his nomination papers in violation of the election laws, besides concealing details of assets.
He submitted that polling staff violated the election rules as ballot bags of 53 polling stations were submitted a day after the polling. He said that the respondent was declared a returned candidate with a margin of 1,406 votes instead of invoking legal provisions of recounting.
He asked the tribunal to set aside the victory notification of the former minister and order a fresh election in the constituency.
