January 21, 2003	Tuesday	Ziqa’ad 17, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 20: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to Attorney General on the petitions filed by seven politicians who were barred from contesting Senate elections.

The petitioners are seeking permission to contest Senate elections just as the court had allowed Javed Jabbar and Ayub Khattak to run for these polls.

A three-judge bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, took up seven petitions and issued notice to AG for Tuesday.

The petitioners are: Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor, Rana Tanvir, Malik Umar Aslam, Asfandyar Wali Khan, Zafar Iqbal Jhagra, Mir Shah Jehan Khetran, and Mian Abdul Waheed.

The Supreme Court had provisionally allowed Javed Jabbar, and Ayub Khattak to contest Senate elections and directed that their nomination papers should not be rejected on the grounds that they were defeated in recent elections.

The petitioners have challenged Article 8AA of the Conduct of General Elections Order, 2002, which bars such politicians from vying for the Senate polls who were defeated in the general elections.

The military government of Chief Executive Pervez Musharraf, nineteen days after the holding of general elections, had amended the order and added Article 8 AA, providing that “a person shall be disqualified from being elected or chosen as, and from being, a member of the Senate if, having been a candidate for election to the National Assembly or a Provincial Assembly at the elections held under this Order he has not been elected to such assembly.”

The petitioners have argued that Gen Musharraf had lost his power to legislate after October 12, 2002. It was further argued that Senate was a symbol of federalism and as such the amendment, barring those defeated in the elections from contesting the Senate elections, was tantamount to depriving the provincial assembly members of their right to choose representatives for the Senate.