By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan

An election court has unseated the speaker of Pakistan’s lower house -- the National Assembly -- conceding a major blow to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

The court in its 80-page ruling declared Saturday that major irregularities had been found in the election of Speaker Ayaz Sadiq.

Sadiq had defeated the country’s former cricket hero, and chief of his Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) party, Imran Khan, by a margin of over 10,000 votes in the northeastern city of Lahore in the 2013 general election.

Sadiq told reporters he was going to challenge the judgment in the Supreme Court.

This is the second judgment against the ruling party in the last two months as the election of the railway minister, Khawaja Saad Rafiq, had also been declared null and void for similar reasons. The minister, however, was granted stay by the apex court.

The PTI emerged as the second highest vote-taker in the 2013 general election with over 8 million votes. The PML secured nearly 15 million votes.

Hundreds of exuberant PTI supporters gathered outside the residence of Imran Khan in Lahore and danced to drum-beating.