LAHORE: An appellate tribunal of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Saturday accepted an appeal filed by former finance minister Ishaq Dar against the rejection of his nomination papers for the upcoming Senate elections, and allowed him to contest the election.

Through an agent given special power of attorney, Mr Dar challenged the rejection of his nomination papers by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). His counsel argued that the ECP’s returning officer (RO), who had issued the order, had rejected Mr Dar’s nomination papers without considering certain facts. He added that the RO had also failed to hold proper scrutiny of the nomination papers as was required under the Representation of Peoples Act 1976.

The counsel pleaded that the RO had skirted legal formalities before passing the order, while requesting the appellate bench to set aside the RO’s decision and declare Mr Dar eligible to contest the Senate election.

The tribunal, comprising Justice Aminuddin Khan, allowed the appeal for hearing and allowed Mr Dar to contest the Senate election scheduled for March 3.

The former finance minister has been out of the country for some months now for medical treatment, while an accountability court of Islamabad has declared him an absconder as he has not been attending proceedings of the corruption references against him.

On Feb 12, an RO had rejected Mr Dar’s nomination papers after leader of the opposition in the Punjab Assembly Mian Mahmoodur Rasheed raised objections.

Separately, the tribunal dismissed two appeals filed by Andleeb Abbas of the Pakistan Tehreek-i- Insaf (PTI) challenging the acceptance of the nomination papers of two Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz candidates — Nuzhat Sadiq and Sadia Abbasi, a sister of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.

Ms Abbas alleged that Ms Sadiq and Ms Abbasi had not declared their assets and liabilities in the nomination papers, which they were bound to do so under the Representation of Peoples Act 1976. She added that the respondent candidates had concealed the details of their income tax and wealth tax. She contended that the respondents were not eligible to contest the election and asked the tribunal to strike down the RO’s decision and declare the respondents ineligible to contest the Senate polls.

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2018