IHC reserves judgement on petitions challenging MNAs' eligibility

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Tuesday reserved its judgement on petitions challenging the eligibility of three members of the National assembly (MNAs), including Tashfeen Safdar, Maleek Bokhari and Kanwal Shazeb.

Acting Chief Justice Aamer Farooq reserved the judgement after hearing arguments from both sides at length.

During the last hearing, counsel for Tashfeen Safdar and Maleeka Bokhari had concluded their arguments, while the lawyer for Kanwal Shazeb completed his arguments today.

Tashfeen Safdar’s lawyer pleaded that it was not necessary for a candidate to mention his ‘previous disqualification’ in nomination papers submitted to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

The counsel also objected over the maintainability of the case and contended that the matter did not fall into the jurisdiction of IHC as his client was elected on a reserved NA seat from Punjab.

The opponent party could not get the seat even if his client was disqualified, he said.

Maleeka Bokhari’s lawyer Sajeed Sawati said his client was not a foreign national when scrutiny of her nomination papers was finalized by the ECP.