GUJRAT: The nomination papers of former chief minister and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) President Chaudhry Parvez Elahi and three other female candidates, all belonging to the PTI, for by-polls for PP-32, Kunjah, were rejected by the returning officer (RO) on Thursday.

The scrutiny of nomination papers of several candidates had earlier been rescheduled for Thursday after some health issues developed with RO Taabish Mahmood Butt on Wednesday.

However, the RO office issued a list of valid candidates skipping the names of Parvez Elahi, Chaudhry Sumaira Elahi, the sister of PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Rehana Abbas and her daughter Zahra Ikhlas, both kin of Parvez.

The nomination papers of 10 aspirants were accepted, which include PML-Q’s Chaudhry Musa Elahi, Azfar Badar Warraich of PPP, Hafiz Muhammad Iqbal of JI, Faisal Mehmood of TLP, Safdar Mumtaz Sandhu, and Rukhsar Ahmed Meelu.

The nomination papers of Parvez Elahi, Sumaira Elahi, and Zahra Ikhlas could only be submitted after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) extended the last date of filing the papers to March 20 after the Lahore High Court (LHC) ordered the chief election commissioner on March 18 to personally look into the matter for the submission of the papers of candidates belonging to the Elahi camp.

Parvez Elahi and Sumaira Elahi had filed a writ petition with the LHC after they were not allowed by the police to enter the deputy commissioner complex to file the papers in the RO office for two consecutive days on March 17 and 18.

The reasons for the rejection of nomination papers of these four candidates belonging to the Elahi camp of the PTI could not be ascertained.

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2024