Imran's party loses seats it won to Sharif's coalition after recounting

In a dramatic turn of events after the general elections of February 8, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed independents have been losing their victorious seats to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) following recounting of votes across several constituencies, The Express Tribune reported.

Even though PTI-backed independent candidates achieved a historic feat by securing the highest number of seats in the National Assembly during the February 8 general elections, despite facing the setback of losing their iconic bat symbol, the party's streak of losses persists.

This was evident as they first lost reserved seats and subsequently conceded several other seats to opponents during the recounting process.

In a recent turn of results, ex-minister of state for interior Abdul Rehman Kanju, who was defeated by PTI-backed independent candidate Rana Faraz Noon, somehow stunned Noon with victory in the recount in NA-154 (Lodhran).

Initially, Noon had won with a margin of 6,499 votes. The recount, however, made PML-N's Kanju a winner with a lead of 7,301 votes. Noon had secured 134,937 votes, which now have shrunk to 120,683 as opposed to Kanju's 128,438 votes after the recount - leaving one to wonder what really happened in the first counting.

Subsequently, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) issued the victory notification of Kanju and withdrew the one that had declared Noon as a returned candidate. In some other cases, it was reported, that Azhar Qayyum Nahra of PML-N was declared the winner after recounting in NA-81, Gujranwala, The Express Tribune reported.

Nahra's opponent, a PTI-backed independent candidate Bilal Ijaz, had secured 117,717 votes, winning with a lead of 7,000 votes against Nahra. The recounting, however, turned Ijaz's victory into defeat as Nahra got 110,057 votes against Ijaz's 106,860 votes and won with a 3,197 lead in the recount.

Also, PMLN's Khan Bahadar from Jaranwala PP-100 constituency recently defeated PTI-backed candidate Chaudhry Umair Wasi Zafar. On Bahadur's application, the ECP ordered recounting. The results reversed the equation, suggesting that PML-N's resurrection is in full swing in the recounting process.

Since the general elections, the PTI leadership has constantly been claiming that its mandate was stolen as well as expressing reservations on poll results but to no avail. After losing a big chunk of reserved seats in NA, PTI is now losing the seats its independent candidates had won one after the other in the second round of counting.

According to The Express Tribune, the second counting of poll results is proving to be disastrous for PTI as predicted by one of its leaders, Asad Qaiser, a few days ago. Qaiser while talking to a private news channel, alleged that the ECP was planning to reduce 20 more seats for PTI in the recounting process.

The PTI leader had said that ECP doesn't order recounting when the tribunals are functioning. Yet, he regretted, ECP was still ordering recounting in different constituencies and the runners-up were emerging victorious in the recount.

Qaiser also alleged that the PTI-backed candidates were even being deprived from entering the building where recounting takes place, lamenting that the country had been turned into a 'banana republic'.

Under section 143 (case management) of the ECP Rules of 2017, the Election Tribunal may, with the consent of parties, fix a time schedule for trial and disposal of the petition within one hundred and eighty days period from the date of filing of the petition till the announcement of the final judgment in the case.

With current speed, some political experts conjecture that the PTI-backed candidate, who had merged into the Suni Ittehad Council to claim reserve seats might end up becoming the third largest party in NA; falling behind the PPP, which was in third place after the polls.