LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday dismissed the petitions of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s candidate for by-polls in NA-133 Jamshed Cheema and his wife against the rejection of their nomination papers by Returning Officer (RO) and the election tribunal.
A division bench comprising Justice Jawad Hassan and Justice Muzamil Akhtar Shabbir dismissed the petitions after hearing arguments of the lawyers for the PTI and the PML-N.
Earlier, Cheema’s counsel Mobeenuddin Qazi argued before the bench that the RO rejected the nomination papers of the petitioners on the basis that their proposer was not a registered voter of the same constituency.
He said the proposer had duly obtained a voter certificate from the election commission before proposing the candidature of the petitioners. He pointed out that the voter certificate did not show his constituency.
The counsel stated that the petitioners came to know through media news that their proposer was not a registered voter of the constituency. He said the petitioners sought permission from the RO to change the proposer but their request was dismissed.
The counsel argued that all other members of the proposer’s family were voters of NA-133 and non-listing of the proposer in the voter list was a fault on the part of ECP. He said the ECP included over 3000 fresh voters in the constituency.
The counsel said the petitioners had been illegally disenfranchised and deprived of their constitutional right to contest the election as impugned orders passed by the election tribunal and the RO were in violation of article 4 of the Constitution.
The bench also warned the petitioners for giving an impression that delay in their petitions is on the part of courts. The lawyers of the ECP and the PML-N voter argued that the petitions were not maintainable. The bench dismissed the petitions through its short order.
Previously the two benches of LHC had rescued from hearing the petitions of PTI’s candidates for personal reasons. A PML-N worker had challenged the nomination papers on the ground that the proposer of PTI`s candidate, Bilal Hussain, was not the resident of the same constituency as required under the Elections Act, 2017. Lahore`s constituency had fallen vacant after the death of PML-N Lahore President and MNA Pervez Malik.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021