KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Thursday discharged a petition challenging the candidature of Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari.

Mehfooz Yar Khan of the MQM-Pakistan filed the petition against the PPP chairman, who is contesting election from NA-246, and challenged the order of the returning officer for accepting the nomination papers of Mr Bhutto-Zardari.

The petitioner contended that there were many concealments and misdeclarations in the nomination papers of the PPP chief.

In a previous hearing, the court had asked the petitioner to satisfy it on the maintainability of the petition.

However, a two-judge bench of the SHC discharged the petition after the petitioner withdrew it.

PTI candidate’s plea dismissed

The same bench on Thursday dismissed a petition filed by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf candidate, Naeem Adil Sheikh, challenging rejection of his nomination papers to contest the upcoming general elections from NA-236.

The petitioner had moved the court and submitted that someone had filed an objection with the RO during scrutiny of his nomination papers that he had obtained a bank loan and had defaulted on the same.

He further said the RO rejected his nomination papers for not having disclosed the details of the bank loan and pleaded to annul the RO’s order, as the same was not sustainable in the light of the legal and constitutional provisions.

Meanwhile, the registrar of the SHC in a statement said that in compliance with the chief justice’s order, 28 election petitions have been disposed of at the SHC principal seat Karachi on Thursday while 11 identical petitions are fixed for hearing on Friday.

The SHC Sukkur, Hyderabad and Larkana circuit courts have disposed of all 22, 78 and 43 election petitions pending before them respectively, it added.

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2018