LARHOE / ISLAMABAD, Dec 3: A returning officer rejected on Monday nomination papers of former prime minister and PML (N) leader Nawaz Sharif for NA-120 on the grounds that he had been convicted in two cases.
Mr Sharif can file an appeal till Friday in an election tribunal headed by a judge of the high court.
“So far I have no instructions from the party leadership to challenge the rejection,” Mr Sharif’s counsel Khwaja Haris said.But later in Islamabad, Mr Sharif expressed surprise over the rejection of his nomination papers and said he would not challenge the decision of the returning officer before any court.
He told reporters that he and his brother Shahbaz would not challenge the rejection because they did not recognise judges who had taken the oath under the Provisional Constitution Order.
“As we do not accept these courts, therefore, there is no question of filing appeals (against the rejection) before them,” he added.
He said his party had decided to boycott the elections because it did not want to legitimise the actions taken by President Musharraf.
He said the PML (N) considered the present judges, the PCO and the National Reconciliation Ordinance as unconstitutional.
In 2000, an anti-terrorism court had convicted Mr Sharif of hijacking a plane carrying then army chief Pervez Musharraf home. He had also been convicted and disqualified from holding any public office for 21 years by an accountability court for evading tax on purchase of a helicopter.
Legal experts, however, are of the opinion that Mr Sharif should have been allowed to contest the elections, giving him the benefit of the National Reconciliation Ordinance, like Benazir Bhutto who was also convicted by an accountability court.
They say the relief provided under the NRO is also applicable to Mr Sharif under the principle of equality of law.
Mr Sharif’s rival candidate for NA-120 Khawaja Tahir Zia, Advocate
Rana Aslam and journalist Shahid Orakzai had raised objections to Mr Sharif’s candidature. Returning Officer Qamaruz Zaman, however, turned down the objections of Mr Orakzai who had alleged that Mr Sharif had a role in the attack on the Supreme Court in 1997.
“Mr Sharif’s papers have been rejected on the grounds that he was convicted in two different cases,” the returning officer told journalists in his chamber.
Another returning officer had on Saturday rejected the nomination papers of former Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif for one National Assembly and two provincial assembly seats.
