NA-53: Nomination papers of Abbasi, Mehtab, Gulalai accepted; Imran directed to appear before court

An appellate tribunal for NA-53 on Tuesday accepted the nomination papers of former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, former governor KP Sardar Mehtab Abbasi and PTI-Gulalai (PTI-G) leader Ayesha Gulalai for general election 2018, while PTI Chairman Imran Khan has been directed to appear in person before the court today (Wednesday).
Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani presided over the appellate tribunal. The tribunal had asked Imran Khan to submit the affidavit in person.
The RO had objected minor defects in the nomination papers, but the tribunal rejected those objections and observed that under Section 62 of the Elections Act 2017, such defects may be overlooked.
The RO had rejected Shahid Khaqan's nomination papers saying, "While scrutinizing the affidavit of candidate Shahid, I found a clause-N of the affidavit made applicable for a class of candidates who served as elected members from any national and/ or provincial assemblies and requires information of their constituencies in as much as the detailed facts/instances of their important contributions for the benefit of their said constituencies. "These important contributions for the voters' benefit of said constituencies may have included their rights under part-II of the Constitution of 1973 and /are fund based. The requirement of this clause in the affidavit of candidate Shahid despite being wholly applicable is not answered/ completed as the same is filled in with the personal qualities of candidate Shahid such as; (1) his integrity (2) lessening of his assets; (3) he as a tax payer; (4) does not change loyalties, etc."
Former Governor KP Sardar Mehtab Abbasi in his appeal adopted that his nomination papers were accepted by an RO in Abbotabad while the same were rejected by an RO in NA-53.
Similarly, former PTI MNA Ayesha Gulalai in her appeal stated that she remained MNA on women reserved seat from 2013 till 2018 and now she has launched her own political party by the name of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Gulalai (PTI-G). She added that scrutiny of her nomination papers was done on June 18 while returning officer (RO) rejected the same on June 19 on unfounded, baseless and unwarranted grounds. The RO had rejected her nomination papers saying, "While scrutinizing the affidavit of candidate Ayesha, I found a clause-N of the affidavit made applicable for a class of candidates who served as elected members from any national and/ or provincial assemblies and requires information of their constituencies in as much as the detailed facts/instances of their important contributions for the benefit of their said constituencies, like her from NA-325 women reserved seat in the year left blank by her. These important contributions for the voters' benefit of said constituencies may have included their rights under part-II of the Constitution of 1973 and /are fund based. The requirement of this clause in the affidavit of candidate Ayesha despite being wholly applicable is not answered/ completed in a way required. The answer given is, "Nil." No fund was given to women MNAs." But at the same time, she should not say that she did not enjoy the privilege of being an MNA and respective emolument attached to such office of MNA, the order further said.