MULTAN/LAHORE/PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senior Vice President Shah Mahmood Qureshi has been declared ineligible to contest elections from his stronghold of Multan as the Election Appellate Tribunal on Saturday rejected his appeal against the rejection of his nomination papers, The News reported .
While Qureshi was allowed to contest the polls from NA-214 constituency in Sindh’s Umarkot town, the Appellate Election Tribunal dismissed his appeal filed against the Returning Officer’s (RO) decision to reject his nomination papers for two seats in the National Assembly and as many seats in Punjab.
He applied for nomination papers for constituencies NA-150 Multan-III, NA-151 Multan-IV and PP-218, PP-219.
Speaking to The News, Multan High Court Bar President Rana Asif Saeed said that the election tribunal had rejected Shah Mehmood’s appeal filed to restore his right to stand. The tribunal declared him ineligible to stand for election. Appellate Tribunal Judge Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar delivered the verdict, he said.
Earlier, the RO had rejected the nomination papers of Qureshi from NA-150 Multan-III, NA-151 Multan-IV and PP-218, PP-219 and he filed an appeal against the rejection of his nomination papers. However, the Court of Appeal rejected his appeal.
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Meanwhile, over 60 appeals continued to be heard before the election tribunal constituted at the Multan Bench of the Lahore High Court on Saturday.
The nomination papers of Zartaj Gul and her husband Humayun were received from Dera Ghazi Khan and the tribunal declared her eligible to contest the elections.
The nomination papers of Jamshed Dasti’s wife Nazia Dasti and nephew Samad Dasti were accepted, while his appeal against rejection of nomination papers was adjourned till Sunday. Nomination papers of Malik Niaz Ahmad Jhakkar and Malik Owais Haider Jhakkar from Leh NA-182 Multan were accepted.
Nomination papers of Irshad Arain from Multan-Burewala NA-156 have been approved. Rizwan Shaukat’s nomination papers were also received.
Multan Appellate Judge Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar and Justice Ali Zia Bajwa heard the appeal in the LHC Multan Bench. Appeals from NA-139 to NA-153 and NA-156 to NA-159, PP-193 to PP-224 and PP-229 to PP-236 were heard in the Dogar Court.
The Appellate Tribunal headed by Justice Ali Zia Bajwa heard appeals from NA-91, NA-92, NA-175 to NA-189 as well as provincial constituencies PP-89 to PP-93 and PP-268 to PP- 297.
In Lahore, the Appellate Tribunal held a hearing on an appeal filed against the approval of nomination papers of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif from NA-130 and directed the petitioner to appear before the court by Sunday.
Petitioner Shahid Aurakzai failed to appear for the second time on Saturday for a court summons. The court discussed the registrar’s objections to the petitioner’s appeal and gave him the last chance to present his arguments against the registrar’s objections until Sunday.
The LHC Appellate Tribunal dismissed the appeal against the approval of nomination papers of PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz from PP-80 Sargodha and the nomination papers were declared valid.
