LAHORE: A two-judge bench of the Lahore High Court on Thursday suspended a decision of an election tribunal and allowed Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) central information secretary Fawad Chaudhry to contest the upcoming general elections from the National Assembly’s constituency NA-67 (Jhelum).

The tribunal comprising Justice Ibadur Rehman Lodhi had disqualified Mr Chaudhry invoking Article 62 (1) (f) of the Constitution while allowing an appeal moved by Syed Fakhar Haider.

Mr Chaudhry challenged the tribunal’s decision before the high court under its writ jurisdiction with a prayer to restore the decision of the returning officer who had accepted his nomination papers.

Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who was also disqualified by the appellate tribunal, has yet to challenge the decision in the Lahore High Court.

As the two-judge bench headed by Justice Syed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi took up the petition, Advocate Azam Nazir Tarar argued on behalf of Mr Chaudhry that the appellate tribunal had acted beyond its jurisdiction by passing the impugned decision.

The counsel stated that the returning officer after scrutiny of the documents had accepted the nomination papers and did not take into consideration the objections raised by respondent Haider.

He said the respondent approached the appellate tribunal; however, it dismissed his appeal with an observation that the respondent was not a competent person to file the appeal as he was neither a candidate nor objector. He pointed out that the respondent filed a second appeal on the same grounds and the same tribunal this time entertained it and rejected the nomination papers of the petitioner.

Advocate Tarar argued that the tribunal was not functioning as a constitutional court and the declaration issued by it was without any lawful authority. The tribunal issued the declaration without affording an opportunity of hearing to the petitioner.

He asked the bench to set aside the impugned decision of the tribunal for being unlawful and reinstate the order of the returning officer.

The bench observed that the points raised by the petitioner’s counsel required consideration and suspended the impugned decision of the tribunal. It directed the counsel for the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to convey the order to the legal director of the commission to do the needful. The bench also sought a reply from the ECP on the petition by July 3.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2018