ISLAMABAD: The capital’s election tribunal accepted 65 of the 70 appeals submitted against the orders of the returning officers who had rejected the nomination papers of several candidates from various political parties.

The tribunal, comprising Justice Arbab Mohammad Tahir, upheld the decisions of the ROs in the remaining appeals. In one of the appeals, the judge upheld the rejection of the nomination papers of a candidate for possessing dual nationality.

Similarly, two appeals were disposed of with certain observations while two other appeals against the acceptance of the nomination papers of a transgender person were also dismissed.

The appeals against acceptance of the papers of transgender person Nayyab Ali had been filed by another transgender person Nadeemul Zafar.

Zafar, a registered voter from Multan, had challenged the candidature of Nayyab for Islamabad’s NA-46 and NA-47 constituencies.

The returning officers of both the constituencies had cleared Nayyab’s candidature after scrutiny.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2024