KARACHI: An election tribunal of the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday declared PML-N candidate Miftah Ismail eligible for contesting the NA-249 by-election in Karachi. The tribunal dismissed the petition seeking disqualification of Miftah Ismail and allowed him to contest by-election in NA-249 constituency.

The decision was announced on the petition filed by Insaf Lawyers Forum, challenging the approval of Miftah Ismail’s nomination papers for the election in NA-249. The plaintiff stated that returning officer (RO) had illegally accepted PML-N leader’s nomination papers despite not fulfilling Article 62 and 63 of the Constitution.

The NA-249 seat was relinquished by PTI’s Faisal Vawda, who had won the seat in the 2018 general election, beating PML-N’s Shehbaz Sharif by a small margin of 723 votes. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had announced to hold the by-election on April 29.