LAHORE: A Lahore High Court division bench will take up on Monday the writ petitions of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s candidate for NA-133 (Lahore) by-poll, Jamshed Cheema, and his wife, being a covering candidate, against the rejection of their nomination papers.

Previously, a two-judge bench had recused itself from the petitions and referred the same to the chief justice for fixing the matter before any other appropriate bench.

The chief justice fixed the hearing of the petitions before a division bench comprising Justice Shujaat Ali Khan and Justice Faisal Zaman Khan for Monday.

The returning officer had rejected the nomination papers of the petitioners on the basis that their proposer was not a registered voter of the constituency they wanted to contest from. They challenged the decision before the election tribunal, which also dismissed their appeal and upheld the rejection of the papers.

PML-N voters had challenged the nomination papers of the PTI’s candidates, saying the proposer, Bilal Hussain, was not qualified to subscribe the papers of the duo under the Elections Act, 2017.

The petitioners contended that the impugned orders passed by the election tribunal and the RO were in violation of article 4 of the Constitution, which is a citadel of administrative and judicial governance in the country. The petitioners said they had been illegally disenfranchised and deprived of their constitutional right to contest the election.

Lahore’s constituency had fallen vacant because of the death of PML-N’s MNA Pervez Malik.

The ECP announced by-poll in the constituency to fill the vacancy on Dec 5 and PML-N announced the late MNA’s widow Shaista Pervez Malik as its candidate.

In their writ petitions, the PTI’s candidates also asked the high court to suspend the schedule for the by-election till final decision of the case.

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2021