ISLAMABAD, Sept 29: The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed Lt-Gen (retd) Majeed Malik, a senior vice-president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, to contest election for the office of the Chakwal district nazim and asked the election commission to include the petitioner’s name in candidates’ list for the Oct 6 poll.

Headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, a three-member bench comprising Justice M. Javed Buttar and Justice Jamshed Ali also held that the election tribunal could be approached any time after the election to challenge the petitioner’s qualification.

“We hold that the petitioner is qualified to contest the elections under Section 151(1 e) of the Punjab Local Government Ordinance 2001,” the order said, adding that the Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi bench should not have gone into such factual controversies.

Justice Mohammad Shabir Akhtar of the LHC had on Monday rejected Gen Malik’s plea against the District Returning Officer’s decision of rejecting his papers. Subsequently, Gen Malik challenged the LHC order.

Restoring initial findings of the Returning Officer who had accepted his nomination papers despite objections raised by general councillor Chakwal union council Chaudhry Aurangzeb, the apex court directed the election commission to make arrangements to ensure the petitioner’s participation in the contest.

The court noted that Inter-Service Public Relations director-general Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan had confirmed the validity of Gen Malik’s certificate.

Soon after the decision, Gen Malik’s supporters rushed to congratulate him. Gen Malik said that justice had prevailed but accused the PML leadership of destroying the party’s image in Punjab by openly nominating candidates in a party-less election.

Earlier, Punjab Advocate-General Aftab Iqbal, who represented the election commission, told the court that the duplicate copy of the matriculation certificate issued by the Punjab university was not admissible since it was issued on Aug 14, 2005, which was a gazetted holiday.

Besides, he added, no evidence was available to testify that Gen Malik had studied in Government School Chakwal and appeared in the examination.

He said the Punjab university’s gazette did not contain the name of the petitioner’s father.

The bench, however, took exception to the AG’s representation and observed that it was against the normal practice and the court’s discipline.