SHC allows PTI’s Saifullah to contest Senate polls

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Thursday declared Pakistan Tahreek-i-Insaf (PTI) candidate Saifullah Abro qualified to contest the Senate election.

A two-member bench of the SHC, headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, heard a plea challenging the decision of election tribunal for rejecting Abro’s nomination papers for Senate polls.

The court asked him to convince it about the national achievements. To which, Abro’s counsel Makhdoom Ali Khan told the court that apart of 13 projects, other schemes were also completed by his client in partnership.

He said Abro was awarded top performance certificates. “My client has completed various projects including flyovers and bridges,” the counsel told the court. “He also built the railway line and the Kotri Industrial Area project apart of the Larkana city flyover, and railway line bridges in Kashmore and Khairpur,” the lawyer said.

The lawyer also said that his client also constructed flyover bridges in Tando Adam and Hyderabad, a flyover at railway line in Nawabshah, Sukkur railway Line Bridge and the Rawalpindi, Islamabad metro project, Makhdoom Ali Khan said.

After hearing the arguments, the court set aside the decision of the election tribunal and allowed Saifullah Abro to contest the Senate polls.

It may be noted that the nomination papers of Saifullah Abro for a technocrat seat for Senate from Sindh, were earlier rejected by an election tribunal of the SHC.

Makhdoom Ali Khan Advocate pleaded Saifullah Abro’s challenge to the rejection of his nomination papers in high court.

“The election tribunal has misinterpreted the national achievements,” Abro’s counsel argued.

Qadir Khan Mandokhel submitted advocacy papers in court on behalf of the complainant against Saifullah Abro.

Abro challenged the rejection of his nomination papers for the forthcoming Senate elections in the high court.

The PTI candidate said the tribunal handed the verdict without careful consideration of facts. He said he is eligible to get elected as a technocrat as he fulfills the criteria laid down for the Senate seat.

Abro had filed nomination papers on a PTI ticket to contest the Senate election from Sindh on a technocrat seat.