Ayaz Sadiq, Aleem Khan, others: LHC dismisses appeals against RO's decisions to accept nomination papers

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday dismissed appeals against the Returning Officer's decisions to accept the nomination papers of former National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and Mohsin Latif of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Aleem Khan and Shoaib Siddique of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf for the by-polls of NA-122 and a provincial assembly's constituency.
The appeals were filed by Pakistan People's Party leader Barrister Amir, chairman Pakistan Justice Party Advocate Munsif Awan, Pakistan Awami Tehreek leader Advocate Ishtiaq Ahmad Chaudhary and Hafiz Talha against the decisions of returning officer for accepting the nomination papers of Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and others. During the course of arguments, the counsel for Sardar Ayaz Sadiq rejected the allegations of appellants against her client saying they submitted their papers on September 14 while the next day was the day to file objection against the papers but nobody turned up to file objections.
She submitted that the Justice Party' objection that Sadiq concealed his assets was wrong, as the appellant could not establish it neither before the returning officer nor before the appellate forum. She argued that the election tribunal neither convicted Sardar Ayaz Sadiq nor he was fined.
She also said Ayaz Sadiq never enjoyed any protocol after the tribunal's order de-seating him. She also rejected the allegations that her client undertook unapproved foreign tours, saying that he once travelled to Germany in official capacity which was approved by the Prime Minister's secretariat. The counsel for Mohsin Latif said the tribunal's order never mentioned his client committed rigging in the constituency rather it put the blame on the polling staff, who failed to conduct free and fair election.
The allegations that the development projects were being executed in the constituency concerned were also baseless, he said, adding that the projects were started during the previous regime and were still going on. The counsel for Aleem Khan also rejected the allegations, arguing that there was no case pending against his client for the past six months. Aleem Khan had never been involved in land grapping and illegal occupation of properties, he asserted. The court had also cleared him in the Vision Developer case, he argued. He further submitted that the returning officer accepted his nomination papers and did not raise any question about his character.
Similarly, Shoaib Siddique's counsel contended that the appellants could not come up with any solid evidence against his client and simply wanted to destroy his political career. Barrister Amir of the Pakistan People's Party, Munsif Awan of the Pakistan Justice Party had argued that Sardar Ayaz Sadiq did not qualify to contest election because he had been convicted by the Election Tribunal and had also imposed fine on him. Hafiz Talha had challenged the candidature of Aleem Khan that stating that Aleem had been involved in many cases and a number of cases were pending against him in different courts.