KARACHI, Sept 9: The two election appellate tribunals, comprising judges of Sindh High Court, allowed on Monday 12 appeals of candidates against the rejection of their nomination papers for election to different seats of the National and Sindh assemblies.
The tribunal, comprising Justice Syed Sarwar Hussain Jafferi and Justice Mohammed Sadiq Leghari, granted appeals of seven candidates and rejected an equal number of appeals. It also reserved orders on six appeals of the candidates, including that challenging the candidature of Syed Khurshid Shah, a leader of the People’s Party and former federal minister.
The tribunal, consisting of Justice Mohammed Roshan Essani and Justice Mohammed Moosa K. Leghari, disposed of in all 11 appeals. It granted appeals of five candidates, including Mir Munawwar Ali Talpur, a PPP leader and brother-in-law of Asif Zardari.
The appeals against the acceptance of nomination papers of Syed Khurshid Shah, a candidate from NA-198 and PS-1 (Sukkur), were filed by a rival candidate, Maulana Asad Thanvi, who called in question the veracity of the educational documents of the former federal education minister.
The tribunal granted two appeals of a candidate of the People’s Party (Shaheed Bhutto) from NA-198 and PS-2 (Sukkur), against the rejection of his nomination papers by the returning officer.
The returning officer, additional district and sessions judge, Muhammed Ishaque Abrani, had rejected the papers of the PPP (SB) candidate as, according to him, the candidate “does not fulfil the required conditions regarding the knowledge of Islam”.
In his order, the RO had observed: “During the course of scrutiny the candidate says that he has got very little knowledge of Islam. He cannot recite the Holy Quran, contending that the reciting of the Holy Quran is not ‘Farz’. Under these circumstances it appears that he does not fulfil the required conditions regarding the knowledge of Islam, therefore, his nomination form stands rejected.”
However, his counsel, Mohammed Imran Shamsi, submitted before the tribunal that in reply to a question of the RO his client had stated that he could not claim to have complete knowledge of Islam.
The tribunal, comprising Justices Essani and Mosa Leghari, granted the appeal of Nadim Ahmed, a candidate from PS-66, Tariq Khan Afridi from NA-239 and PS-89, Mir Munawwar Ali Taplur from PS-66 and Syed Akhtar Khan from PS-101.
The tribunal dismissed the appeals of Syed Zahid Ali of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), a candidate from NA-252, Aysha Pedaishi Leader from NA-247, Mati-ur-Rahman from PS-103, Asghar Ali from NA-46 and PS-105 and Uzma Malik from PS-101.
The tribunal, consisting of Justices Jafferi and Sadiq Leghari, granted the seven appeals of candidates, including Mohammed Ali from NA-198 and PS-2 and Shoaib Shah from PS-1.
The tribunal also reserved orders on six appeals, including those challenging the acceptance of nomination papers of Salim Jan Mazari and Shahar Jan Mazari from NA-210 and PS-17 respectively. Their candidature was challenged by Zafar Ullah Khan Domki, a rival candidate from the two constituencies.
The challenger called in question the educational qualification of the two candidates as required by the election laws.
