MANSEHRA: Returning officer NA-15 Zakir Hussain Jadoon on Thursday confirmed the victory of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-backed Shahzada Gustasap Khan after formally issuing Form 49.

“This is not only my victory but also of people, workers and leadership of PTI as the returning officer in pursuance of the ECP’s ruling issued Form 49,” Mr Khan was speaking to media persons after receiving the final result.

A two-member bench of ECP comprising Nisar Ahmad Durrani and Babar Hassan Bharwana dismissed the petition of the losing candidate and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday and ordered RO NA-15 to issue consolidated result (Form 49) of NA-15.

According to the result, Shahzada Gustasap Khan could bag as many as 105,259 votes and his close rival and PML-N supreme leader Nawaz Sharif secured 80,413 votes.

Mufti Kifayatullah, a nominee of JUI-F, secured 29,938 votes, while Pakistan People Party’s aspirant Zargul Khan bagged 5,443 votes.

The constituency — NA-15 — is widely spread over the rural parts of Mansehra and neighbouring Torghar district.

According to Form 49, a total of 645,049 men and women voters are registered in the constituency. As many as 247,660 votes were polled and 9,104 of them were rejected.

Shahzada Gustasap Khan along with his supporters reached the RO office and collected the result following which a jubilant crowd distributed sweets among each other.

Mr Khan told the jubilant crowd that it was merely an election process for him and his rival candidate Nawaz Sharif’s son-in-law retired captain Mohammad Safar first misguided him to contest election from here and when he lost with a margin of over 25,000 votes, he compelled him to challenge the result with ECP, saying votes of Torghar were not counted in Form 47.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2024