Lahore election tribunal declared Yasmin Rashid’s election petition against Nawaz Sharif in NA-130 as non-maintainable
Dr Yasmin Rashid. PHOTO: APP/FILE
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Dr Yasmin Rashid has decided to approach the court against the election tribunal’s decision in NA-130, following consultations with her legal team in jail.
According to her counsel Rana Mudassar Umar, Dr Rashid has instructed him to immediately challenge the tribunal’s verdict. He said that an application has already been filed to obtain a certified copy of the decision, and a petition will be submitted in the court as soon as the copy is received.
Rana Mudassar Umar further maintained that the election tribunal failed to properly assess the facts of the case and dismissed Dr Rashid’s election petition citing ‘technical grounds’.
A day earlier, an election tribunal has upheld the Election Commission of Pakistan’s notification declaring Nawaz Sharif the winner in Lahore’s NA-130, dismissing a challenge filed by the PTI leader. The decision ends her bid to overturn Sharif’s victory in the February 2024 general election from the constituency, also known as NA-130 (Lahore-XIV).
The tribunal, headed by Judge Rana Zahid Mahmood, rejected Dr Rashid’s petition on technical grounds. The ruling means the official result notified by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will remain in force. According to the published results of the February 8, 2024 election, the three-time prime minister secured 179,310 votes in NA-130, while Dr Rashid polled 104,485.
Dr Rashid had approached the tribunal in the weeks following polling, arguing through her lawyers that the ECP failed to follow proper procedure when it notified Sharif’s victory. She alleged that the result had been manipulated in Sharif’s favour and sought to have the notification set aside.
2024 elections
The February 8, 2024 general election was followed by weeks of disputes and competing claims over results in multiple constituencies, with PTI-backed candidates alleging that outcomes were altered during consolidation and notification.
PTI leaders publicly described the post-poll process as a ‘mandate’ issue, arguing that results should reflect polling-station level documentation (Form-45) rather than the consolidated figures issued later, a controversy that dominated much of the immediate post-election political and legal fallout.
Those challenges were largely pushed into the election tribunal system, even as petitioners continued seeking relief through different forums. Months after the vote, a large majority of election petitions were still awaiting decisions, citing free and fair election network tracking that showed only a small proportion of disputes had been decided and that several tribunals had not resolved any cases during that period.
NA-130 was among the constituencies repeatedly cited in the wider debate. Before polling, Dr Rashid’s candidacy itself went through litigation, with an election appellate tribunal allowing her to contest against Sharif.
After the results, she filed an appeal challenging Sharif’s victory notification at the Lahore High Court election tribunal, while PTI figures also claimed in public briefings that she had been leading in NA-130 before Sharif was declared the winner.
