KARACHI, Sept 13: The election tribunals on Friday rejected the appeals of Benazir Bhutto, Chairperson of the Pakistan People’s Party, and Ghinwa Bhutto, Chairperson of PPP Shaheed Bhutto, for contesting the forthcoming elections.

The former prime minister had filed three appeals against the rejection of her nomination papers for two National Assembly seats in Larkana and one reserved seat for women.

The election tribunal No.1, comprising Justice Roshan Essani and Justice Moosa K. Leghari, dismissed Benazir’s appeal against the rejection of her papers for the reserved seat. The tribunal announced its judgment in the chamber.

A lawyer, Anwar Ahmed Khan Yousufzai, was arrested and sent to jail for raising slogans in the courtroom as the election tribunal No.2, comprising Justice Syed Zawwar Hussain Jafferi and Justice Sadiq Leghari, rejected the other two appeals of the self-exiled chief of the PPP.

“Political workers are strangers to court and can be forgiven but an advocate involved in such an act cannot be condone,” the tribunal observed when some other advocates belonging to People’s Lawyers Forum requested the court to forgive their colleague.

Justice Jafferi ordered immediate arrest of Yousufzai when he shouted “shame, shame” following the pronouncement of the judgment.

The returning officers had rejected the nomination papers of Benazir Bhutto on the grounds of being convicted and sentenced by an accountability court under Section 31-A of the NAB Ordinance for deliberately avoiding the court proceedings against her.

A large number of PPP workers and local leaders had gathered inside and outside the Sindh High Court building. A heavy contingent of law enforcement agencies, deployed in and around the SHC, however, outnumbered the PPP leaders and workers.

Over a dozen PPP workers, including women, were picked up by the police as they raised anti-government and pro-Benazir slogans.

Syed Qaim Ali Shah, a member of PPP’s central executive committee, termed the decision “very unfortunate”. “We were very much expecting such a decision and we would challenge it in the superior courts,” he said.

The ET-2 also dismissed the appeal of Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, PPP’s provincial chief and a candidate for the Sindh Assembly seat from Larkana, against the rejection of his nomination papers by the returning officer due to his being defaulter of a bank loan.

Similarly, Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi was also disallowed to contest the elections by the tribunal as he failed to establish his educational qualification. The appeal against the acceptance of his nomination papers was filed by Riyaz Jamali.

However, the tribunal allowed the appeal of Agha Siraj Durrani, a PPP candidate for PS-9, Shikarpur, against the rejection of his nomination papers. It also allowed the appeal of Pir Sadaruddin Shah, son of Pir Pagara, against the rejection of his papers by the returning officer.

The election tribunal No.2 dismissed appeals against the candidature of Salim Jan Mazari and Shaharyar Mazari. Their rival candidate, Zafarullah Domki, had filed the appeals against them.

The ET-1 disallowed Abu Bakar Sheikhani, a leader of the Pakistan Muslim League(Q), from contesting the elections. Islam Hussain had filed appeals against the candidature of PML (Q) leader.

The ET-2, which continued the proceedings till 7pm, pronounced judgments on over 54 appeals. It allowed some 10 appeals and rejected the remaining appeals. The ET-1 dismissed six and allowed two appeals.