The petitioners, who were accompanied by their legal counsels and hundreds of supporters on the occasion, wanted immediate initiation of the vote
recounting process.
During the
recounting process, Dr Mirza raised several objections including ECP's direct intervention into the matter.
During Saturday's hearing at the LHC, Mr Rafiq's counsel Azam Nazir Tarar argued that the returning officer had violated fundamental rights of the petitioner by refusing to hold
recounting of all ballots.
Justice Karim further ordered the respective returning officers to hold
recounting in PP-123 (Pir Mehal) and PP-177 (Kasur).
The counsel asked the court to set aside the impugned decision of the RO and order
recounting of votes in the constituency.
Recounting has also been approved for six Punjab Assembly seats, three Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly seats and two Sindh Assembly seats.
On Monday, the provincial election commissioner wrote to the Sindh chief secretary, the ROs of NA-230 and PS-73 and other officials concerned telling them that the
recounting be resumed and completed.
The GDA candidate had defeated her rival by 860 votes and local PPP leaders told a press conference, held after the
recounting was stalled, that 306 more votes were found in favour of Mr Chandio with the
recounting of votes of just 13 polling stations having been conducted by then.
Commenting on the decision of the RO, Mushahidullah Khan, a senior leader of the PML-N, said had the election process been fair and transparent, the returning officer would have accepted Mr Shahbaz's request for
recounting of votes, instead of 'summarily' rejecting his application.
The counsel for Qutab ud Din argued that SC had ordered for
recounting in this constituency.
Ms Raza filed petition before the SC against the
recounting of only 21 polling stations in which Baba was declared as winner in her place and SC had ordered
recounting of all 209 polling stations.
The RO said in his report that
recounting at 188 polling stations had completed, but PTI ticket-holder Sonia Ali Raza had demanded not to recount ballot papers of the remaining 21 polling stations as it was already counted.
The representatives commented that they had completed recounts for 208 ballot stations, had finished
recounting votes cast in the Da An District and were now moving on to the Wenshan District .
Her camp expects the PET will finish
recounting the ballots from the three pilot provinces before the year ends.