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LAHORE, Sept 30: Several politicians whose candidacies were objected to on grounds of malpractices ranging from misuse of authority to corruption to wilful default, or their having been under NAB investigation, or for attaching fake BA/BSc degrees during the scrutiny of their nomination papers for the general elections are still in the run for national and provincial assemblies from the Punjab.
The list of such candidates includes a couple of names whose papers were rejected by the returning officers but were allowed to contest the polls by the election tribunals of the Lahore High Court.
There are also several politicians accused of malpractices in the past or convicted by the NAB courts.
The papers of former PPP leader Mehdi Hassan Bhatti, who is now in the run for a national assembly seat from Hafizabad on a PML-QA ticket, have been accepted in spite of the allegation that he possesses a fake BA degree. It is alleged that Bhatti was not even a matric when he contested the 1997 polls. A representative of the Punjab Assembly reportedly confirmed the allegation during the hearing of the objection by an election tribunal.
The allegation was repeated by LHC Bar Association secretary Shahid Mahmood Bhatti during a reception hosted for new LHC CJ Justice Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhry.
In Sialkot, Chaudhry Abdus Sattar Varyio, at present in NAB custody, and his son and former MPA Chaudhry Armaghan Subhani, had filed nomination papers for two National Assembly seats NA-113 and NA-114 as independent candidates. Later, they withdrew their papers (under government pressure as is alleged by the PPP and PML-N leaders) from NA-114 in favour of PML-QA candidate Zahid Hamid, the elder brother of former Punjab governor Shahid Hamid. Now both are contesting as independent candidates for NA-113 and supporting Zahid Hamid for NA-114.
Sattar Varyio’s nephew and former provincial minister Khush Akhtar Subhani is also facing a NAB reference and has recently been released on bail on medical grounds. He and his cousin Armaghan have been awarded PML-QA tickets for the Punjab Assembly seats —- PP-125 and PP-127.
Khush Akhtar’s father and a former federal minister, Chaudhry Akhtar Varyio, was convicted by a NAB court in absentia but has never been arrested. In fact, he has been declared a proclaimed offender by the court. Despite this, he ran the campaign of Sialkot Nazim Mian Naeem and is again reported to be openly canvassing for PML-QA candidates from Sialkot district.
It is stated the nomination papers of the Varyio family candidates were cleared as no-one filed any objection to them.
NAB DETAINEES: PML-N central vice-president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi and PPP secretary-general Jehangir Badar are two candidates from Lahore who are contesting the elections while in NAB custody. Badar is contesting the polls from NA-122 and Hashmi from NA-120.
Badar faces two corruption references for allegedly issuing directions to the PSO, SNGPL, SSGC and OGDC authorities to make illegal appointments while misusing his position as federal petroleum minister and for amassing assets worth Rs50 million disproportionate to his known sources of income.
Hashmi has been alleged to have acquired assets worth Rs380 million disproportionate to his known sources of income.
A former MPA from Narowal and an absconder in a NAB reference, Tariq Anees, surrendered himself before the election tribunal and was allowed to contest the polls. The tribunal further granted him a two-week protected bail.
COURT BATTLE: The court battle to decide acceptance or rejection of nominations by various candidates continued for 10 days. The cases were contested in three tribunals of the LHC from Sept 3 to 10.
The major decisions included rejection of an appeal by Nawabzada Mansoor Ali Khan, son of Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan. The petition, challenging the rejection of his papers for attaching a fake BA degree with his nomination papers, was dismissed by the election tribunal without taking it up for want of time on the last day of the hearing of such petitions.
Mansoor was informed at 10pm on Sept 13 that the court timings had lapsed and the tribunal would not hear petitions any more and the unheard ones should be considered dismissed.
Mansoor had filed papers for NA-178 which were rejected as the returning officer received a fax message from the Punjab University, stating that Mansoor had never appeared for BA examinations.
Mansoor pleaded before the tribunal that he had appeared for the BA (Ist annual examination) in 1992 held at the Old Campus of the Punjab University in Lahore under roll number 18968, and passed. He submitted the result card of the university declaring him successful in political science, Islamic history and Persian.
On the first hearing, the Nawabzada sought an adjournment while on the second the tribunal summoned a representative of the university.
Interestingly, Mansoor did not challenge the decision by the tribunal before a full bench of the Lahore High Court, the next forum for relief.
Former federal food minister Abdul Sattar Laleka was allowed to contest as PML-QA candidate from Bahawalnagar by the election tribunal, setting aside the decision of the returning officer concerned who had disqualified him for failing to meet the graduation condition.
Laleka’s degree in business administration issued by the Canadian School of Management, Canada, was not recognized by the University Grants Commission (UGC). The election tribunal, however, declared that Section 99 (1A) (CC) of the Code of Conduct for General Elections 2002 had asked for “a bachelor’s degree in any discipline or any degree recognized as equivalent there to by the UGC.”
The tribunal observed that by producing the original documents of his degree Laleka had fulfilled the graduation condition and was qualified to contest the polls. The tribunal gave the ruling while acknowledging that the degree was not recognized by the UGC.
PPP leader Faisal Saleh Hayat’s appeal challenging the validity of an A-level certificate of PML-QA leader Abida Hussain was dismissed by the election tribunal. Faisal had contended that Abida had got the A-level (considered equivalent to intermediate in Pakistan) from Swiss Fishing School which was not recognized by the UGC and, therefore, she should not have been allowed to take BA examinations earlier this year.
Faisal had further alleged that Abida Hussain had used her social contacts with the Bahauddin Zikriya University vice-chancellor to appear for the BA examinations.
The tribunal rejected the appeal for want of force and conviction. It observed that the appellant had failed to prove his allegations.
The appeal filed by former petroleum minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali against his rival candidate Ghulam Sarwar Khan from NA-153 (Rawalpindi), challenging the latter’s intermediate certificate, was rejected by the tribunal.
Chaudhry Nisar had pleaded that Sarwar Khan had obtained a diploma in technical education from an institute of Faisalabad and got admission to graduation by illegally claiming that the diploma was equivalent to the intermediate certificate.
The plea was rejected on the ground that since Chaudhry Nisar had not questioned the respondent’s BA degree, the basic requirement for contesting the elections, Sarwar Khan could not be disqualified.
While taking up a petition against Syed Najaf Abbas Sial, a PML-QA candidate for PP-83 (Jhang), the tribunal observed that evidence had come on record that a forgery had been committed by him in obtaining the BA degree. It directed the authorities concerned to probe the matter and point out the culprit. Najaf Abbas was still allowed to contest the polls.
It was alleged that Najaf had never appeared for the BA examinations and had attached a forged degree. A representative of the UGC inspected the degree and declared before the tribunal that it did not appear to be “genuine”.
The tribunal also inspected the relevant record of the Punjab University and found that certain forged entries had been made. However, it ruled that the matter required a detailed inquiry which was not possible to be carried out by it (the tribunal).
WILFUL DEFAULT AND LOAN WRITE-OFF: The candidacies of PML-QA leaders Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain and Chaudhry Pervez Elahi for national and provincial seats from Gujrat were challenged on charges of loans write-off.
It was objected that the three candidates had got a loan of Rs37.789 million from the National Bank of Pakistan in the name of Punjab Sugar Mill which was latter got written off. They were also accused of not paying their land revenue to the government. Chaudhry Shujaat and Chaudhry Pervez were separately accused of evading the property tax.
The tribunal dismissed the appeals on the ground that the appellant could not establish that the three candidates were major shareholders in the company nor was there any evidence on record to show that the loan had been written off.
Abida Hussain’s appeal challenging the candidature of PPP’s Faisal Saleh Hayat was also dismissed. Faisal’s candidature was also challenged from NA-91 by Sughra Imam, daughter of Abida Hussain.
According to the appeals, Faisal had committed a wilful default in payment of two loans of Rs4.4 million and Rs307 million. Faisal had not specifically mentioned the bank accounts maintained by him in his nomination papers was another allegation against him.
Faisal’s counsel produced a certificate by the bank concerned showing that the loan had been retired. The tribunal observed that a failure to make a complete disclosure of bank accounts was not a mistake substantial in nature and, therefore, Faisal could not be disqualified on this ground.
The appeal challenging the candidature of former Privatization Commission chairman and PML-N candidate from Sialkot Khwaja Asif was also dismissed. It was alleged that he was a wilful defaulter of Rs296.861 million.
The appellant stated the Sialkot Dairies, having Asif, his wife, and other family members as executive directors, had obtained three loans on personal guaranty of Khwaja Asif. He produced the copy of a decree of Rs100.84 million issued against the Sialkot Dairies to support his allegation.
The tribunal, however, rejected the appeal on the ground that the name of Khwaja Asif had not been mentioned specifically in the decree and he was not a major shareholder in the company.
BANNED ORGANIZATIONS LEADERS: The banned Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) president, Maulana Azam Tariq, has been allowed to contest the elections from NA-89 (Jhang).
The state had filed an appeal objecting to the acceptance of the Maulana’s nomination papers, saying he had been heading a banned organization and propagating against the ideology of Pakistan. It was further argued that his detention by the government for security reasons had been seconded by the LHC Review Board.
The tribunal, however, rejected the plea on the ground that there was no evidence on record to suggest that the Maulana was propagating against the ideology of Pakistan while currently being in detention.
