National Assembly former speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza has retained the NA-230 Badin seat following recounting of votes ordered by the Sindh High Court (SHC).
Mirza of the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) bagged 95,064 votes while Pakistan Peoples Party’s Haji Rasool Bakhsh Chandio secured 93,999. According to unofficial results, Mirza retained the seat with a lead of 1,065 votes.
On Friday, the SHC had dismissed a petition of the former NA speaker to stop the recount in the NA-230 constituency, from where she has been elected for the fifth consecutive time.
She had prayed to the court to suspend the Election Commission of Pakistan’s July 30 directives to the returning officer to complete the recounting in the Badin constituency.
The Mirza family of Badin had disassociated itself from the PPP and contested from the GDA’s platform. Her son Hasnain Mirza was also elected from PS-72 with 43,111 votes while his opponent Syed Ali Bux alias Pappu Shah received 35,588 votes. However, Dr Mirza’s spouse and former home minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza and her other son Hassam Mirza met defeat in PS-74 and NA-229 respectively.
Published in Daily Times, August 6th 2018.
