PESHAWAR, July 2: An election petition, filed against Senator Ilyas Ahmad Bilour of the ANP, was withdrawn on Monday by PML’s candidate Justice (retd) Azam Khan. He said that he had been advised by his party’s chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain to withdraw the petition.

Justice (retd) Azam Khan — who lost the Senate polls by a margin of only two votes in March 2006 — had filed an application, stating that the Bilour family had approached Chaudhry Shujaat through different jirgas, following which he had received orders to withdraw the petition.

At the outset of the election tribunal’s proceedings, petitioner’s counsel Imtiaz Ali told Justice Ijazul Hassan of the Peshawar High Court that his client wanted to withdraw the petition. The tribunal pronounced that the petition stood dismissed as withdrawn by the petitioner. Qazi Muhammad Anwer appeared on behalf of Mr Bilour.

Mr Khan had filed two petitions — one against Ilyas Ahmad Bilour and the other one against MMA’s Azam Khan Swathi.