LAHORE, Sept 3: A Lahore High Court election tribunal on Tuesday ruled that no leniency could be extended to any aggrieved candidate who is ignorant of election laws.

On the first day of hearing of appeals against the decisions of the returning officers on the nomination papers of candidates for the Oct polls, Justice Najamuz Zaman expressed his displeasure over the plea taken by the counsel of a candidate, Sarfraz Khan, for PP-102, that his client was not aware of the laws requiring every candidate to get his candidature proposed and seconded by registered voters of his constituency.

The judge observed that it was deplorable that the prospective legislators representing 140 million people of the country did not even know the rudiments of the law governing their election process.

“It is a painful thing to hear that a candidate seeking the membership of an assembly cannot fill his nomination papers properly,” observed the judge.

The tribunal, comprising Justice Zaman and Justice Pervez Ahmad, refused to reverse the decision of the RO concerned rejecting Sarfraz’s papers on the grounds that his candidature had not been proposed and seconded by persons enlisted as registered voters in PP-102.

The same tribunal also dismissed the appeal of a candidate, Faisal Masood Bhatti, for PP-155, upholding the decision of the RO concerned that he had not attained the age of 25 years to be a candidate for a provincial assembly seat as required by the law. The tribunal observed that the scrutiny of the appellant’s national ID card and matriculation certificate had confirmed that he had not attained the age of 25 years and thus did not qualify to contest the polls.

Two other appeals filed by former MPA Rauf Khalid were rejected by the tribunal comprising Justice Raja Muhammad Sabir and Justice Naeemullah Khan Sherwani for failing to attend the hearing.

Rauf Khalid had filed the appeal against the rejection of his nomination papers by the two ROs concerned on the grounds that he had been convicted on corruption charges by an accountability court of Lahore last year. Rauf, however, did not appear before the tribunal to pursue his plea. Former Punjab chief prosecutor of the anti-terrorist courts Asghar Gill and a candidate for PP-150 was issued a notice for Sept 6 on an appeal filed against the acceptance of his papers.

Muhammad Ayub, another candidate for the same constituency, had alleged in his appeal that Gill had been paid an additional monthly allowance of Rs20,000 for staff maintenance against the allowed limit of Rs8,000 only.

The appellant claimed that by virtue of this additional payment Gill had been holding an office of profit being in service of Pakistan and thus should be disqualified from contesting the polls under Article 8(D) of the Conduct of General Elections Ordinance, 2002.

The proceedings on an appeal filed by Mansoor Sarwar Khan against the rejection of his papers upon an objection raised by PPP leader Ejazul Hasan, a candidate for NA-115, were adjourned for Wednesday (today).

Mr Sarwar in his appeal had taken the plea that his papers had been rejected by the RO concerned upon an objection raised by Ejazul Hasan that he had misappropriated funds of the National Co-operatives Supply Corporation.

According to the appellant, his papers had been rejected for the same constituency in the 1997 elections on the same objection and now that objection was not sustainable as a result of the LHC judgment given in his favour.

Notices in three appeals filed by Hafiz Abdul Rauf, a candidate for PP-33 and PP-34, Najaf Abbas Sial, contesting the polls from PP-83 and Qari Muhammad Sadiq, a candidate for PP-164, were served on the Punjab University registrar for presenting the their original marks sheets for the BA examinations.

The registrar of Tanzeemul Madaris Ahle Sunnat was also served with a notice for producing the original degrees issued to Maulana Ghiasuddin, contesting elections from NA-116, and Syed Mushtaq Hussain by it. Both the candidates had pleaded in the appeals that the degrees issued to them were equivalent to MA degree while the ROs concerned had rejected the papers, saying that the degree in question was not even equivalent to graduation.

Former MNA Tariq Banday was issued a notice for Sept 5 on an appeal filed by his rival candidate Syed Mushtaq Husain from Na-126. Mushtaq has challenged the acceptance of Bandey’s nomination papers by the RO concerned on the grounds that he was a wilful defaulter of Bank Al-Falah to the tune of Rs20 million. Another 27 appeals were filed with the LHC registrar on Tuesday out of which 20 had been marked for Wednesday (today) to the three tribunals.