LAHORE, Sept 14: The chief election commissioner (CEC) has been requested by PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif’s son, Hamza Shahbaz, to declare his father’s and Kulsoom Nawaz’s candidature intact by dismissing the disqualification order of an LHC election tribunal against the two as infructuous for failure of its members to sign the orders within the specified life span of the tribunal.

The application was faxed by the Sharif’s counsel Ashtar Ausaf on Saturday to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) from his office at 3pm.

The LHC election tribunal comprising Justice Najamuz Zaman and Justice Pervez Ahmad had disqualified Shahbaz and Kulsoom from contesting the October polls on Thursday.

It has been pleaded in the application that the tribunal did not announce the judgment in the open court on Thursday. Rather, an intimation of acceptance of the appeals against the candidates was conveyed through the court’s reader at around 6:45pm to the Press and other persons present in the courtroom.

According to the appellant, the copies of the detailed judgment were not delivered to the associates of Ashtar till Sept 13 evening by the court staff of Justice Najamuz Zaman, saying the judgment was lying with the judge and could not be made available at that time.

It has been claimed that Ashtar went to the courtroom of Justice Zaman to inquire about the detailed written judgment at 10:30am on Saturday and was told by the court staff that the orders had not been signed by the tribunal members as yet. He has claimed to have confirmed this statement of the court staff through the perusal of the dispatch register of the court.

As mentioned in the application, a hurriedly drafted application addressed to both the judges was presented to Justice Zaman by Ashtar, saying the disqualification orders issued against Shahbaz and Kulsoom had become ineffective under the law for not having being signed by the judges on time.

The counsel contended before the judge that the tribunal had ceased to exist on Sept 13 and the tenure of the office had ended with no signatures affixed on the judgment in question. And there was no room for ante dated signatures by the tribunal members on the judgment following the lapse of the deadline for doing so.

“It is trite law that unless a judgment is signed by the judicial officer within a certain period of time it does not exist in the eyes of the law and it signing at this belated stage would be a violation of the law,” the counsel has claimed to have conveyed to Justice Zaman through a separate letter.

It has been pleaded that the orders of the returning officers declaring both Shahbaz and Kulsoom valid candidates for four different constituencies of Lahore, have attained validity since the orders of the tribunal have not been signed till the last date for deciding the appeals on Sept 13.

The CEC has been requested to direct the returning officers to mention the names of Shahbaz and Kulsoom in the final lists of the validly nominated candidates likely to be issued on Sunday (today).

While talking to Dawn, Ashtar claimed that he himself had seen the unsigned judgment lying at the table of Justice Zaman when he went to see him in his retiring room. He said Justice Zaman had told him that the judgment could not made available to his associates since its final review was due.

Ashtar hinted that the decision to file an appeal before the LHC full bench against the verdict of the election tribunal could be deferred till the receipt of the reply from the ECP. He claimed that he did not feel it necessary to file such an appeal for the time being unless the ECP rejected Hamza’s plea.

Asked what course of action would he adopt if the ECP refused entertain the request, Ashtar said he would challenge such a reply before the LHC.

He, however, said in case the ECP allowed the appeal, Kulsoom would stand disqualified for contesting the election from NA-120. According to him, the tribunal, while allowing two appeals against the acceptance of her nomination papers from NA-119 and NA-121, had rejected her appeal against the rejection of her candidature from NA-120.

“Once the orders of the tribunal are accepted to have become ineffective by the ECP, the orders of returning officer for NA-120 declaring her disqualified for contesting the election from that constituency would attain absolute finality,” he added.

Kulsoom had been cleared by the returning officers concerned for NA-119 and NA-121 while Shahbaz had also been declared a validly nominated candidate for NA-119, PP-142 and PP-142 during the scrutiny of his nomination papers last month.