GILGIT: The election tribunal of Gilgit-Baltistan on Wednesday declared the victory of PPP candidate Jamil Ahmed from the Gilgit constituency of the GB Assembly.
Judge Raja Shakeel Ahmad of the election tribunal directed GB Chief Election Commissioner to notify PPP candidate Jamil Ahmed as the winner on the Gilgit-II seat of the assembly since November 2020.
Earlier, the GB election commission had declared PTI candidate Fathullah Khan successful from the constituency. However, the PPP candidate challenged the PTI candidate’s victory in January 2021.
He alleged post-electio ‘rigging’, pointing out that fake postal votes had been counted in favour of the PTI candidate.
Later in August 2023, the election tribunal suspended assembly membership of PTI leader Fathullah Khan and declared PPP candidate victorious to represent the constituency during the next half tenure.
Subsequently, Mr Khan who was then GB Minister for Planning, challenged the decision of election tribunal before the supreme appellate court.
The supreme appellate court then revoked the judgment of the GB election tribunal and temporarily restored the seat to the PTI candidate, while referring back the case to the election tribunal for deciding the matter only after the verification of postal votes from Nadra.
Advocate Islamuddin told Dawn that GB election tribunal heard of the case again on the orders of supreme appellate court.
Postal votes of the constituency were then sent to Nadra for verification and in its report, Nadra declared over 1,700 postal votes “fake”.
After hearing arguments from both sides, Judge Raja Shakeel Ahmad of the GB election tribunal pronounced the ruling.
The election tribunal judge noted that PPP candidate was wrongfully deprived of his victory through illegal means in favour of the PTI candidate.
While declaring Jamil Ahmad as the legitimate winner of the elections, the tribunal ordered the chief commmisioner to notify PPP leader as the winner.
Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2024
