IN his rejoinder to the petition filed in the Supreme Court against his eligibility to contest the Senate election, Ishaq Dar has argued that a person who has been declared an absconder cannot be deprived of his constitutional rights which include the right to contest elections.

This argument is outright fallacious and baseless.

The constitutional rights include the right to possess property but an absconder can be dispossessed of his property under section 88 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which reads as under: “88. (1) The court issuing a proclamation under section 87 may at any time order the attachment of any property, movable or immovable or both, belonging to the proclaimed person.”

Election laws do not specify ineligibility of an absconder to contest elections because such a situation can neither be anticipated nor even imagined in normal circumstances. A candidate for has to approach at least three persons — a proposer, a seconder and a counsel — to submit papers.

An absconder is declared by the court as a proclaimed offender under section 87 of CrPC only when it is proved that he is completely hidden and his whereabouts are not known.

How can such a person approach at least three persons and still remain hidden?

If an absconder’s right to contest elections is accepted, it will be a mockery of law, over and above the mockery that a proclaimed offender continues to be a minister.

Shaukat Ali Bhatti
Lahore

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2018