LAHORE, Sept 20: The Lahore High Court on Friday dismissed petitions seeking permanent disqualification of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif and two other PML leaders from contesting any future election.

A full bench of the LHC ruled that no petition seeking permanent disqualification of a candidate could be allowed once he had been okayed by the returning officer concerned.

Besides the Sharif brothers, the petitioner had sought disqualification of Khwaja Saad Rafiq and Asad Ashraf, candidates for the National Assembly from Lahore.

The bench comprised Justice Javed Butar, Justice Ejaz Chaudhry and Justice Jamshed Ali.

The petition was based on allegations that the respondents had actively been involved in organizing an assault on the Supreme Court building in November 1997. It was maintained by the petitioner that Shahbaz Sharif had himself monitored the assault through a telephone call from the Prime Minister Secretariat.

It was further argued that the bill for the lunch offered to the assailants had been paid by Khwaja Saad and Asad Ashraf. As alleged by the petitioner, Khwaja Saad had been summoned thrice by the Islamabad police but he did not appear before the inquiry team.

The petitioner sought the permanent disqualification of the four because of their alleged anti-Pakistan conduct.

The bench observed that the petition was not alive to the extent of Nawaz Sharif since he had already withdrawn his candidature and hence could not be made a respondent in the petition.

The Deputy Advocate-General of Punjab assisted the court on this point, saying that the election laws had given a right of withdrawal to every candidate and such right had been exercised by Nawaz Sharif.

The petitioner, who was told to produce the inquiry report of the Supreme Court Assault Case to prove his case, was unable to do so.

In its detailed judgment, the bench was of the view that any writ petition filed even by a rival candidate for declaring the other candidate disqualified to contest the polls forever would stand infructuous.

It was further observed that the petitioner was not a registered voter of the constituencies concerned nor was he contesting the elections from there so he could not challenge the candidature of the respondents. It was observed that there was nothing on record to show that the respondents had been convicted in the SC Assault case to render them disqualified from contesting the elections.

This is for the third time in less than one month that this plea has been dismissed. Earlier, the returning officers concerned and the election tribunal had dismissed this plea moved by the same petitioner.

PETITIONS: The bench fixed Sept 25 for hearing the petitions of Shahbaz Sharif and Kulsoom Nawaz against their disqualification from contesting the polls. The bench observed that it could not take up the petitions for hearing on Friday since the court timings had lapsed.