May 30, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 24, 1429

LAHORE, May 29: Neither PML-N chief Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif nor his counsel will appear in the election tribunal hearing objections against the candidature of the former prime minister.

Mr Nawaz’s counsel and former Punjab advocate general Ashtar Ausaf told a press conference here on Thursday that his client had barred him from joining the tribunal’s proceedings despite his willingness to do so and calls from leaders of lawyers’ movement and civil society for not giving a walkover to opponents.

He told a questioner that the tribunal had no jurisdiction to decide the case ex parte because it was not a civil court and that the respondent was a twice elected prime minister.

He hinted that civil society might join the proceedings to defend Mr Nawaz on its own as he had received a number of telephone calls in this respect.

An election tribunal, comprising Lahore High Court Justices Mian Najamuz Zaman and Tariq Shamim, gave a split verdict on maintainability of the appeal challenging Mr Nawaz’s nomination for NA-52 on Wednesday after the PML-N leader withdrew his papers.

The matter was referred to the Election Commission, which had formed a new tribunal comprising LHC Justices Akram Qureshi and Hafiz Tariq Nasim.

Rejecting reformation of the tribunal as unconstitutional, Ausaf claimed that there was no legal provision for the commission to do so. He said under the law, in case of a split verdict, the ruling of the returning officer was upheld and not referred to a new tribunal.

Alleging that Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz Sharif’s nominations were being challenged by some institutions, and not by individuals, as in all such appeals the counsel was the same.