The Supreme Court (SC) decided to halt proceedings on three separate petitions challenging the candidature of politicians contesting election from different constituencies in Punjab, DawnNewsTV reported on Thursday.

A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Azmat Sheikh observed that the petitions will be heard once the elections have been conducted.

The court allowed the PTI candidate from NA-146 Arif Wala, Ahmad Joiya, to contest the election and observed that they will hear complaints against him after elections.

Furthermore, it also allowed Mir Badshah Qaisrani and Khwaja Islam to contest elections as independent candidates from PP-285 D.G. Khan and PP-111 Faisalabad, respectively.

Petitioner Waseem Zafar had filed a complaint against PTI’s candidate Ahmad Joiya, claiming that in the previous three elections Joya had mentioned his educational qualification to be graduate. However, in the affidavit submitted before the apex court this time around he has mentioned himself as matriculate.

The court postponed the hearing till elections are over.

Last week the Supreme Court restrained the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) from pursuing its investigation against PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur in the fake bank accounts case till the coming general elections are over.

“We do not want excuses that the July 25 elections are rigged,” observed Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar while hearing a suo motu case regarding the slow-paced investigation on part of the FIA in pending inquiries relating to fake accounts and suspicious transactions worth Rs35 billion.

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