KARACHI, Dec 27: NPP’s Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi and PML(Q)’s Ali Bakhsh Shah and his wife, Sen Yasmin Shah, were among the candidates allowed by a three-member bench of the Sindh High Court on Thursday to contest elections from Naushahro Feroze and Badin.

The bench observed in most of the cases that complicated questions of facts requiring a detailed inquiry were beyond the scope of writ jurisdiction and could best be agitated by means of post-election petitions before election tribunals, which were empowered by the Representation of People Act to go into any factual or legal controversy occurring before, after or during the polls.

The credentials of Mr Jatoi (NA-211) and the Shahs (NA-225 and PS-57) were challenged by PPP candidates Zulfiqar Behan, Zulfiqar Ali and Fahmida Mirza for producing bogus academic certificates.

Sindh University controller of examinations verified the authenticity and equivalence of the NPP candidate’s degree. A similar inquiry could not be held into the degrees produced by Ali Bakhsh Shah and Yasmin Shah from a foreign university but since they had already served or were serving as legislators and a detailed probe could only be conducted after the polls, the petitions against them were dismissed.

PPP’s Wahid Bakhsh Bhayo (NA-203, Shikarpur) also got a green signal for his contest against Faiz Mohammad Mehar, who had alleged that he (Bhayo) being the director of the Ruby Rice Mills, which was liquidated in 1986 because of insolvency, was ineligible. Bhayo said he could not be saddled with liability as he was not a majority shareholder.

Also dismissed were petitions moved by former ruling coalition’s candidate Fahad Malik against PPP’s Ejaz Husain Jakhrani and Mumtaz Jakhrani. The petitioner and the respondents are running for Jacobabad national and provincial constituencies and the former alleged that his rivals were concealing their assets and defaulting on payment of public dues.

Advocates Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, Farooq H. Naek, Ali Ahmed Junejo, Noor Naz Agha, Sofia Shah, Shahab Sarki, Raza Hashmi, Adnan Karim, Mushtaq Memon and Hassan Sabir were among the lawyers who appeared for the various petitioners and respondents. The bench, which consisted of Chief Justice Mohammad Afzal Soomro and Justices Mrs Qaiser Iqbal and Mahmood Alam Rizvi, was assisted by Deputy Attorney-General Rizwan Ahmed Siddiqui, Assistant Advocate-General Agha Zaffir Ali and Assistant Election Commissioner Ataur Rehman.