PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court on Thursday directed Election Commission of Pakistan to submit original record related to filing and scrutiny of nomination papers of candidates on National Assembly seats reserved for women from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

A bench consisting of Justice Syed Mohammad Attique Shah and Justice Shakeel Ahmad adjourned till April 2 hearing of a petition of a woman candidate Sadaf Ihsan against the suspension of a notification by the ECP of her election as MNA on seats reserved for women on quota of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl.

On March 19, a bench had pronounced a short order accepting the present petition of Ms Sadaf to restore her as MNA-elect to one of the National Assembly seats reserved for women on JUI-F quota.

However, the bench then decided to re-hear the case as chief of JUI-F was a necessary party to the case and he should also be heard on the issue.

Ms Sadaf has challenged the ECP’s March 11 notification that put on hold another order about her election as the returned candidate on a reserved seat.

The suspension of the election notification of petitioner Sadaf Ihsan, which was issued on March 4, came on the formal complaint of JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and another candidate on the ‘priority list’ of the party, Hina Bibi, to the ECP.

On March 11, the ECP withheld action on its earlier notification, began an inquiry, and suspended the relevant returning officer.

Advocate Naveed Akhter appeared for the JUI-F and stated that the petitioner Sadaf Ihsan was not on the priority list submitted by the party for the National Assembly seats reserved for women from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He added that Serial No 3 of that list had Sadaf Yasmeen, who didn’t submit her nomination papers.

The ECP’s counsel Mohsin Kamran Siddique stated that the name of Hina Bibi was included in the list of candidates on the order of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

He stated that the ECP had issued the impugned notification after it had received complaint from the party head that the petitioner’s name was not given in their priority list of candidates.

When the bench inquired who was a respondent before the Supreme Court, Sadaf Yasmeen or Sadaf Ihsan, the JUI’s counsel stated that the former was a party in that case.

He stated that the petitioner was not a member of the JUI. He added that if she had been a member of the party she would have withdrawn her candidature the moment the party chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had raised objection to it.

Advocates Ishaq Shah and Farhan Tariq appeared for the petitioner and stated that if her name was not in the priority list of the party why nobody had objected on her nomination papers and when her name had appeared in Form-32 carrying the list of validly nominated candidates.

They contended that the ECP had issued the impugned notification in an illegal manner as it had no powers under the Constitution or the Elections Act, 2017, to suspend the notification of an assembly candidate elected to any of the reserved seats.

They said that once the election tribunals were notified to decide election disputes, the ECP had no jurisdiction to see such complaints.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2024