LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday stopped the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) from releasing election result of National Assembly constituency (NA-128) in Lahore, where PTI-backed independent candidate Salman Akram Raja was contesting against IPP candidate Awn Chaudhry.

The directives were issued on a petition filed by Salman Akram Raja, who claimed the returning officer (RO) violated the election act by not releasing the election result.

The plea urged the court to order the Returning Officer to compile the election in the plaintiff’s presence.

Hearing the petition, LHC Justice Ali Baqir Najafi barred the electoral watchdog from releasing NA-128 result. The court also issued notices to ECP and Awn Chaudhry for Feb 12.

According to unofficial results, IPP candidate Awn Chaudhry, backed by PML-N, secured victory in NA-128 Lahore with 172,576 votes, against PTI backed independent candidate Salman Akram Raja with 159,024 votes.