AFP/ Lahore
A Pakistani election tribunal on Monday unseated the country's railways minister and ordered a fresh poll in his constituency over alleged irregularities in the 2013 general election.
Khawaja Saad Rafique won the NA-125 seat in the eastern city of Lahore with a majority of nearly 40,000 as the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) swept to a landslide victory in May 2013.
But the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) party, led by former cricket star Imran Khan, has claimed widespread fraud tainted the poll which made Nawaz Sharif prime minister for a third time.
Rafique's PTI rival Hamid Khan, who came second in NA-125, filed a petition against the election result, which was accepted on Monday by an election tribunal headed by Judge Javaid Rashid Mehboobi.
The brief ruling said the election should be re-run but did not give details of the judge's reasoning.
A defiant Rafique criticised the decision, telling reporters he was being "punished for the mistakes of returning officers".
Rafique said his legal team had advised him that the tribunal had found irregularities in seven polling stations out of 265.
He said the PML-N leadership would decide whether to appeal against the ruling to the Supreme Court or accept it and contest the by-election.
Mohammad Hussain Chotia, the lawyer representing PTI candidate Hamid Khan, hailed the ruling as a victory for the party.
The PTI has waged a national campaign calling for the investigation of rigging and staged a 126-day sit-in protest in front of parliament last year.
The party says results were changed at least in four constituencies including Rafique's through fraud.
Pakistan last month formed a nationwide judicial commission under the Supreme Court chief justice to investigate rigging in elections throughout the country.
The commission has asked political parties to provide evidence and is due to start examining witnesses later this week.
