ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) issued a notification on Friday, declaring the chief of the outlawed Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, Maulana Mohammad Ahmed Ludhianvi, as the returned candidate from NA-89 (Jhang).

The notification follows a judgement by an election tribunal in Faisalabad which disqualified PML-N MNA Sheikh Mohammad Akram for his failure to mention the FIR registered against him in his nomination form and declared runner-up Maulana Ludhianvi to have been duly elected as member of the National Assembly in his place.

The ECP received a copy of the judgement on April 14. It issued the notification a day after the tribunal’s decision was challenged by Mr Akram in the Supreme Court and his counsel Makhdoom Ali Khan sent an application to the ECP, urging it not to take any action until a decision by the court.

It was also a day after the head of the Taliban committee for peace talks, Maulana Samiul Haq, held a meeting with Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. Mr Haq is the chief of the Muttahida Deeni Mahaz, the platform from which Maulana Ludhianvi had contested the election last year.

An official of the ECP told Dawn that despite apparent errors in the tribunal’s judgement, the ECP had no option but to implement it. “The Supreme Court is the appropriate forum to challenge the judgement,” he said.

The disqualified lawmaker is the father of former federal minister Sheikh Waqas Akram, who had lost to Maulana Azam Tariq of now defunct Sipah-i-Shaba Pakistan in the 2002 elections from the same constituency.