The Lahore High Court (LHC) declined stay against election of former law minister Babar Awan in senate in a petition that sought rejection of his nomination papers. The court adjourned the proceedings to March 09 for final arguments on the petition.
Earlier, the counsel for Babar Awan, Barrister Syed Ali Zafar, said that on the basis of established principles of law the petition is not maintainable and liable to be dismissed because it only contains allegations without any conclusive evidence or proof.
He further said that under Article 225 of the Constitution, any dispute relating to election, including questions of qualification or disqualification of a candidate cannot be decided by the High Court in writ jurisdiction and the only remedy is to file an election petition before an Election Tribunal after the election. He submitted that in all judgements of Supreme Court (SC) and High Courts of Pakistan, it has been decided that in an election matter, the disputes should not be allowed to be raised at an intermediate stage. The petitioner-lawyer Shahid Jami contended in his petition that Awan has accumulated assets which mismatched with the amount of income tax paid by him. He pointed out that his assets had increased from Rs 4,63,70000 in 2006 to Rs 32,87,03323 in 2011. The petitioner said that Awan was not paying agriculture income tax despite holding agriculture land worth of Rs 21,500000 and agriculture equipment of Rs 1000000.