KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for Thursday (today) on petitions filed by candidates of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan against the orders of an election tribunal for disqualifying them from contesting the March 3 Senate election.

Saifullah Abro of PTI and Rauf Siddiqui of the MQM-P filed their petitions before the SHC challenging the election tribunal’s decision and pleaded to set aside its orders and allow them to contest the forthcoming Senate election.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar put the ECP on notice for Feb 25.

The election tribunal had disqualified the PTI candidate Abro a couple of days ago from contesting the Senate election on a technocrat seat. It had also dismissed an appeal of the MQM-P’s Siddiqui against the order of the returning officer for rejecting his nomination from the same technocrat seat of the upper house. Applicant Ghulam Mustafa Memon had filed an appeal against the Feb 18 order of the RO to accept nomination papers of Mr Abro.

The tribunal had allowed the appeal by observing that the respondent did not meet the criteria laid down in the law to contest Senate election on a technocrat seat as he could not produce the record of his national or international achievements.

Mr Siddiqui had approached the tribunal against the order of the RO for rejecting his nomination form on the ground that he did not complete 16-year education as required by the law. However, the tribunal dismissed the appeal and upheld the RO’s order.

Thereafter, The MQM-P leader filed a petition before the SHC against the order of the tribunal.

Covid-19 vaccine

The provincial health authorities on Wednesday informed the same bench of the high court that people aged above 60 and non-healthcare workers were to be vaccinated on priority basis in the second phase of Covid-19 vaccination campaign.

In compliance with an earlier order, the health secretary through a statement submitted that as per the decision of the National Command Operation Centre (NCOC), all front-line healthcare workers were being administered with Sinopharm vaccine.

Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2021