Several Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) aspirants and its allies, returned to the election arena on Thursday after mounting successful appeals against the rejection of their nomination papers by the returning officers (ROs) during scrutiny process last week.
A day after the period of filing appeals against the ROs decisions of accepting or rejecting the nominations, the appellate tribunals started giving their rulings, while on many others, issued notices to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and other relevant parties.
A number of PTI candidates, whose papers were rejected, have challenged the decisions of the RO. At the same time, objection had also been filed against the acceptance of the papers of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif in Karachi.
As per the election schedule, the nomination papers were received until December 22 and scrutinised by December 30. Later, the candidates had until Wednesday, January 3 to challenge the decisions of the ROs. The tribunals will dispose of all the appeals by January 10.
Those whose nomination papers were allowed by the appellate tribunals, include PTI Central Vice President Firdous Shamim Naqvi for NA-236, Karachi; and a party ally Sheikh Rashid and his nephew Sheikh Rashid Shafiq for NA 56 and 57 for NA 56 and 57, Rawalpindi.
Besides the nomination papers of Ijazul Haq, Punjab Assembly Speaker Sabatin Khan, Aminullah Khan, Hafeez Khan, Khaleeq Kayani, Raja Rashid Hafeez, Tahir Sadiq, his wife Naz Sadiq and daughter Iman Sadiq, Babar Jadoon, Raja Ahmed Aziz Bhatti, were also allowed to contest the elections.
On Thursday, two election tribunals in Rawalpindi, continued hearing of the appeals. They decided a total of 26 appeals – approving 20 and rejecting six. The tribunals also heard 10 appeals, while accepted 35 appeals for hearing.
While accepting the appeals of PTI founder Imran Khan, former Punjab chief minister Parvez Elahi and former minister Fawad Chaudhary, the judges issued notices to the ECP and the returning officers concerned.
During the hearings of the appeals, Tribunal Judge Justice Chaudhry Abdul Aziz remarked that the appellate tribunals had to follow the Constitution and the law. He added that political matters should not be discussed in the court.
At one point, the judge remarked that the tribunals could not stop the way of those who had surrendered in the court, while those who were still in hiding could not be allowed to go to parliament. He also expressed his surprise that why the ROs had shifted the entire burden on the tribunals.
And in the twin city of Islamabad, the appellate tribunal issued notices on the appeals of 51 candidates whose nomination papers had been rejected. The included PTI’s Ilyas Mehrban, Aamir Mughal, Shiraz Kayani, Zubair Farooq and others.
Tribunal Judge Arbab Muhammad Tahir, also issued notices to the parties concerned on the appeal against acceptance of the nomination papers of the transgender candidate and sought their response by Monday.
Justice Arbab heard the application of eunuch Almas Bobi. The petitioner’s counsel took the stand that objections to Nayab Ali’s nomination papers for NA-46 and NA-47 were raised at the scrutiny stage but those were rejected by the RO.
The objections centred around Nayab Ali’s gender mention in the national identity card. In the card, “X” was written in the gender box. The petitioner contended that the Federal Shariat Court (FSC) had declared the gender identity section of the Transgender Persons Act as unIslamic.
In Karachi, the appellate tribunal at the Sindh High Court (SHC) accepted the nomination papers of PTI Central Vice President Firdous Naqvi for NA-236, Karachi. Naqvi’s lawyer later said on social media platform X that the tribunal had declared the objections to his nomination papers as “illegal”.
According to an Express News report, the registrar of the tribunal had raised objections to the plea against approval of Shahbaz Sharif’s nomination papers from Karachi NA 242, filed the other day by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) candidate Masood Khan Mandokhel.
Meanwhile, the tribunal issued notices to the ECP and other relevant parties on the appeals against the rejection of nomination papers of PTI candidates Aftab Jahangir for NA-244; Saeed Afridi for NA-245; Attaullah for NA-246; Aslam Khan for NA-248; Faheem Khan for NA-234; Saifur Rahman for NA-235; Subhan Ali Sahil for NA-243; Fiza Zeeshan for NA-237, and others.
Similarly, notices were also issued on the petitions, moved by Shamshad Khan of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) for PS-95, PTI’s Abdul Manan from constituency PS-118; Rauf Ahmed, independents Sardar Badar Abbasi for NA-234 and Sajjad Hussain for NA-236 and PS-100.
The tribunal also issued notices on five appeals moved by former Sindh minister Zulfiqar Mirza and former National Assembly speaker Fahmida Mirza against the rejection of their nomination papers by the RO for NA 223 Badin.
In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 329 appeals had been filed against rejection or acceptance of the nomination papers of the candidates. According to the data, 116 appeals had been filed by the National Assembly candidates and 213 by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly candidates.
Appellate Tribunal Judge Shakeel Ahmed at the Peshawar High Court (PHC) issued notices to the relevant parties after preliminary hearing of appeals filed by the PTI’s Zahir Shah Toro, Asad Qaiser, Atif Khan, Shahram Tarkai, Ali Muhammad Khan, Shirafazl Marwat and others.
(WITH INPUT FROM OUR PESHAWAR CORRESPONDENT)
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