KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday allowed a candidate of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) to contest the Feb 8 general elections from a Karachi National Assembly seat and also dismissed petition filed against the candidatures of three other party leaders.

PTI’s Alamgir Khan had filed nomination papers from NA-236 (East-II), but the returning officer (RO) dismissed his papers and an election tribunal upheld the decision of the RO.

The SHC also dismissed petitions filed against the candidature of three other aspirants of the PTI from NA-241 (Karachi South-III), including party’s Karachi president Khurram Sher Zaman, President Arif Alvi’s son Awab Alvi, and Muzammil Aslam.

Alamgir Khan had filed a constitutional petition in the SHC against the order of the election tribunal and cited the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), tribunal, RO, Federal Board of Revenue and others as respondents.

Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Alamgir Khan also allowed to contest polls on NA seat

Representing the petitioner, Advocate Haider Waheed and Asad Ashfaq Tola argued that the RO dismissed the candidature on Dec 27 without jurisdiction and on Jan 5, the tribunal also dismissed their client’s election appeal.

They stated that the impugned orders of the tribunal and the RO were liable to be set aside as they failed to consider the currently applicable law.

The counsel contended that the petitioner was left uninformed till Dec 30 when the RO publicly disclosed the list of the accepted candidates, revealing the rejection of the petitioner’s nomination.

They argued that the tribunal had misunderstood the petitioner’s political ordeal and abstained from acquiring documents from the FBR. Some vague and blanket clearance from the FBR was not a requirement to run for the elections, they added.

The lawyers submitted that the role of the FBR in election related cases was pivotal, but there was no legal requirement for the issuance of a no-objection certificate (NOC) from them and this could not be used as a valid ground without any reasoning or explanation for rejecting the petitioner’s nomination papers. The law officers of the ECP and other respondents supported the order of the tribunal.

After hearing the parties concerned, a two-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi set aside the order of the tribunal and allowed the petitioner to participate in the polls. The bench in its order said: “For the reasons to be recorded later on, the impugned order is set aside and the instant petition is allowed.”

The same bench on Wednesday also dismissed three identical petitions filed against the orders of tribunals allowing three other PTI’s aspirant to run in the elections.

Dost Mohammad had filed the petitions against the candidature of the three PTI candidate, adking the SHC not to allow them to take part in the election.

When the bench inquired about the petitioner, his lawyer contended that he was a patriotic citizen and trying to prevent “corrupt people from participating in the elections”.

Initially, the RO had rejected nominations papers of the PTI candidates from the same constituency on several grounds, including non-disclosure of assets and criminal cases as well as alleged misuse of the office of the president of Pakistan.

However, the election tribunals had allowed their appeals and allowed them to contest the forthcoming general elections.

Meanwhile, an election tribunal on Wednesday disposed of an appeal filed against the candidature of former provincial minister Sharjeel Memon of the Pakistan Peoples Party after the appellant had withdrawn the same.

Anwar Ali had filed an appeal against the decision of RO for accepting the nomination papers of Mr Memon from PS-61 (Hyderabad-II).

The appellant contended that the PPP candidate did not mention proper value of vehicles and gold in his possession in the nomination papers and also submitted a fake affidavit along with the papers.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2024