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LAHORE, April 21: An election tribunal of the Lahore High Court on Friday took up a miscellaneous petition through which Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has challenged maintainability of an election petition against him.
Prime minister’s counsel Waseem Sajjad moved the petition and the tribunal, comprising Justice Syed Zahid Husain, adjourned for May 26 further hearing of the petition which stated that the election petition was moved by a candidate who showed himself a ticket-holder of the Communist Party of Pakistan (CPP) which was not registered with the Election Commission.
The counsel submitted the election rules did not bar an independent candidate to file an election petition, but if he belonged to a political organisation, it must be registered with the EC.
Jameel Ahmad Malik, who was a candidate nominated for the byelection by the CPP, brought the victory of Shaukat Aziz in bypoll from NA-51 in August, 2004, into a legal question through a petition which contended that Mr Aziz was not a Pakistani when he filed his nomination papers. He submitted the prime minister was holding an American passport and was still in the employment of the World Bank. Citing the Constitution, he contended that only a Pakistani citizen was qualified to contest.
He also alleged the PM had not relinquished the charge as finance minister, and he contested the byelection from Attock with the help of public money, civil servants, local government institutions and all other resources which was a misuse of government machinery and the public office.
He also stated in his 500-page petition that Shaukat Aziz had also concealed his assets and filed a false declaration of his election expenditure which was highly disproportionate to what he had actually spent from the exchequer.
FATIANA: A local accountability court has directed the National Accountability Bureau to appoint its prosecutor to begin a fresh trial of Riaz Fatiana, a ruling party MNA from Toba Tek Singh and chairperson of the Parliamentary Human Rights Commission.
The court is to begin anew the trial of the MNA in a reference that charged him with misusing his official authority as Punjab education minister in making appointments in violation of rules and regulations.
The case was remanded to the accountability court by the Lahore High Court with the observations that the trial court had ignored important evidence in deciding the reference against Fatiana.
NO TORTURE MARKS: The Munshi Hospital on Friday found no torture marks on the body of Raees Rifaqat, a nine-year old child who remained in the Sanda police custody for 14 days on suspicion of his involvement in a theft case.
The hospital conducted medical examination of the child three days after a local magistrate issued an order in the process of an application moved by advocate Asad Jamal with the contention that Raees was tortured by the police during his illegal confinement.
The child, who came to Lahore from his village in Arifwala tehsil to meet his father Rifaqat, was nabbed allegedly on April 6 as a suspect thief without the registration of a case. His father moved the justice of peace in a habeas corpus petition, and he appointed a bailiff on April 18.
According to Rifaqat, the Sanda police registered a case under Section 54 PPC against the child some 90 minutes before the bailiff reached the police station.
The bailiff recovered the crying Raees from a room away from the lock-up, but the police still did not release him on the grounds that he was to be interrogated. The child was released and produced before the justice of peace on April 19.
