GILGIT: The Gilgit-Baltistan electoral tribunal announced on Wednesday that PPP candidate Jamil Ahmed had won the Gilgit constituency of the GB Assembly.
The GB Chief Election Commissioner was instructed by Election Tribunal Judge Raja Shakeel Ahmad to declare PPP candidate Jamil Ahmed the victor of the Gilgit-II seat of the assembly since November 2020.
Fathullah Khan, a PTI candidate, was already proclaimed the victor of the constituency by the GB election commission. The PPP candidate, however, contested the PTI candidate’s January 2021 victory.
By pointing out that phony postal votes had been counted in favor of the PTI candidate, he accused post-election “rigging.”
PTI leader Fathullah Khan’s assembly membership was suspended by the electoral tribunal later in August 2023, and the PPP candidate was proclaimed the winner to serve the constituency for the next six months.
Mr. Khan, the GB Minister for Planning at the time, then appealed the election tribunal’s ruling to the highest appellate court.
The Supreme Appellate Court subsequently overturned the GB Election Tribunal’s ruling and gave the PTI candidate the seat again for a limited time. The case was then sent back to the election tribunal for a decision only after the postal ballots from Nadra were verified.
Advocate Islamuddin informed Dawn that the matter was reheard by the GB Election Tribunal on the Supreme Appellate Court’s directives.
After receiving the constituency’s postal votes for verification, Nadra declared more than 1,700 of them to be “fake” in its report.
Judge Raja Shakeel Ahmad of the GB election tribunal rendered the decision following hearing arguments from both sides.
The PPP candidate was unfairly denied victory through unlawful tactics in favor of the PTI candidate, according to the electoral tribunal ruling.
The panel instructed the chief commissioner to inform the PPP leader that Jamil Ahmad was the legal winner of the elections.
