LAHORE, Aug 31: PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif and Kulsoom Nawaz were cleared for NA-119 on Saturday, following a payment of Rs9.7 million income tax by them.

Ashtar Ausaf Ali while appearing on behalf of both Shahbaz Sharif and Kusloom Nawaz presented to the returning officer concerned two bank receipts showing a deposit of Rs6.5 million and Rs3.2 million with the National Bank of Pakistan, Wapda House, Lahore, branch. He submitted that these amounts were paid on Friday in the name of Shahbaz and Kulsoom, respectively, to clear the outstanding income and wealth taxes.

It was further submitted by Mr Ashtar that he had asked the tax authorities concerned to provide a “No demand certificate” on Aug 13 but no reply had so far been received in this regard which made the two candidates presume that there were no tax dues outstanding against them.

A local lawyer present in the court raised an objection that the tax liability should have been got settled by Shahbaz and Kulsoom before filing their nomination papers and they were not eligible to contest the polls despite having paid the tax dues.

The RO observed that since they were not aware of such a liability and had made the payments after being informed, therefore the objection was not maintainable.

Earlier, the counsel argued that the nomination papers of both Shahbaz and Kulsoom had been sent to the Consulate General of Pakistan in Jeddah on Aug 27 for the verification of their signatures and an acknowledgment of the receipt of papers had been received from the former. It was submitted that the Consulate could either verify the signatures or could have refused to do so which it had not done in this case.

The RO acknowledged that the letter issued by the Consulate General of Pakistan in Jeddah had shown an acknowledgement of the nomination papers but no information regarding the acceptance or rejection of the papers was on the record. It was observed by the RO that he had implied from the consulate-general’s no response that the papers had been tendered and accepted as such. Therefore, he said the nomination papers of both the PML candidates would be deemed to have been verified.

The third and the last objection regarding the filing of the nomination papers of the two leaders by the unauthorized people was also disallowed by the RO. It was observed that the Clause 12 of the Representation of People’s Act, 1976, allowed any candidate to get his papers filed through his proposer, seconder or any of his or her nominee.

According to the RO, the papers of both the candidates had been filed by their proposers and nominees and hence they could not be disqualified on this ground.

Lastly, while allowing Shahbaz and Kusloom to contest the polls from NA-119, the RO observed that both had not been convicted on charges of moral turpitude, corruption and tendering false evidence. Therefore, he had no doubt in his mind that they stood qualified for contesting the elections.

The judgment was deferred for half an hour by the RO who delivered it at 12:30pm. When he came to deliver the judgment, he asked the party workers present in the courtroom not to raise slogans in the courtroom and outside it. Upon this, a PML-N leader asked the workers to remain quite and calm during the pronouncement of the judgment.