KARACHI, Dec 8: An election tribunal on Saturday dismissed appeals against former chief minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim’s candidature from three national and provincial constituencies.
The appellants, Khan Mohammad Lund and Mohammad Mian Bajeer, had taken up identical pleas alleging that the ex-CM’s medical degree was not authentic and that he had been nominated as an accused in a First Information Report. They challenged the respondent’s nominations from the Tharparkar constituencies, NA-229, PS-60 and PS-61, and added that they had first raised objections before a returning officer, who overruled them.
Advocates Mohammad Ashraff Kazi, Haji Mohammad Jat and Sajid Munir Shah submitted before the tribunal that the allegations were ‘frivolous’ and had been made only to gain cheap publicity. Mere mention in an FIR by political rivals did not disqualify a candidate, they said. A disqualification occurs only after conviction. In the cited case, the ex-CM’s name was discharged by police after preliminary investigation.
As for the ex-CM’s MBBS degree, the counsel said a similar objection had been raised in 2002 but was rejected by the returning officer after detailed scrutiny and verification. The tribunal, which consisted of Justices Nadeem Azhar Siddiqui and Rana M. Shamim, dismissed the appeals in limine. Appeals moved against the candidature of Arbab Zakaullah, the ex-CM’s brother and cover candidate, met the same fate. Former MNA Jam Mashooq Ali was cleared for NA-236 (Sanghar-III) as the appellant failed to make out a prima facie case against authenticity of his academic certificates.
Dismissing appeals moved by Syed Sarfraz Shah (Naushero Feroze), Syed Mohammad Shah (Dadu) and other appellants, the tribunal declared that an undertaking to resign from the membership of a local council did not amount to resignation in contemplation of law and did not render a nazim or deputy nazim eligible for election.
However, a duly tendered resignation was sufficient to qualify a candidate and its acceptance was not a condition precedent. The tribunal issued notices in several appeals for Dec 12 and 13.
In the tribunal consisting of Justices Khwaja Naveed Ahmed and Khalid Ali Z. Qazi, Advocate Anwar Mansoor Khan filed a whole lot of five appeals on behalf of Dr Fahmida Mirza and Mirza Sohail Akbar to impeach the academic qualifications of Syed Ali Bakhsh Shah and Mrs Yasmin Shah, candidates from NA-225 (Badin-II1) and PS-57 (Badin-II). The counter-blast follows appeals filed to challenge the acceptance of Dr Fahmida Mirza and her husband Zulfiqar Ali Mirza’s papers from the two constituencies on account of alleged default. Notices were issued in the appeals for Dec 12.
The tribunal also issued notices in an appeal moved by Zulfiqar Yunus against rejection of his papers for PS-90 (Karachi, West). He said the rejection followed his failure to produce his original certificates, which were stolen from his car as part of a conspiracy to prevent him from contesting the poll. An appeal against the inclusion of Mukesh Kumar in the list of minority candidates of Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians for want of academic qualification would, meanwhile, come up for hearing on Dec 13.
