RAWALPINDI, April 9: Former opposition leader in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Tuesday filed an appeal with the election tribunal against the rejection of his nomination papers in NA-53 Taxila.

The tribunal, comprising Justice Rauf Ahmad Sheikh and Justice Mamoon Rashid Sheikh of the Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench, issued notices to the complainant and sought record from the returning officer till April 11.

As many as 36 appeals have been filed with the tribunal and a few of them have also been decided. In the application of Sheikh Rashid Ahmad from NA-55, the tribunal upheld the decision of the returning officer and rejected the objections raised against the acceptance of his candidature.

In five other appeals, the tribunal rejected the objections and sustained the decisions of the returning officers.

It returned the appeal of former President Pervez Musharraf with the objections that neither he had cited the respondents who had raised objections to his candidature for NA-48 nor attached the list of the objections. He was directed to file the appeal again on Wednesday.

In the case of Nisar Ali Khan, one of the objections raised against his candidature was that he had not mentioned the inherited property that was in the name of his daughter Natalya Ali in nomination papers in 2008.

His counsel Kashif Malik told the tribunal that Natalya Ali was born in 2009. The second objection was that Nisar did not mention the correct details of his agricultural lands.

On this, his counsel contended that they did attach the details but the objection was raised due to misreading or non-reading of the nomination papers.

Another objection about the property of the PML-N leader was that he mentioned a one kanal plot as two kanals in his assets. His counsel told the tribunal that his client had a plot measuring one kanal in the Senate housing scheme but the scheme was never executed by the government even after receiving the advance money.

The fourth objection was about an article written by Nazir Naji in which he wrote that Chaudhry Nisar was in favour of having good relations with the US but publicly denied that.

The counsel maintained that his client had denied such allegations. Another objection was about the mention of Chaudhry Nisar in a book Parliament House Sey Bazaar-i-Husn Tak.

It was objected that Chaudhry Nisar never rebutted the allegations in writing. His counsel, however, argued before the court that the book was a piece of yellow journalism aimed at character assassination.

There were certain elements that keep publishing such things and it was not necessary to rebut such an allegation.

In an appeal against Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) candidate Inamullah Khan Niazi from NA-71 Mianwali, the tribunal issued notices to the returning officer and Mr Niazi till April 11. The objection was that the returning officer had accepted his nomination despite the fact that he was a bank defaulter.

Among others whose appeals were accepted for hearing were Engineer Qamrul Islam from PP-5, Mohammad Ali from PP-35, Tariq Murtaza Satti of the PTI from PP-2, Farrukh Nazir from PP-34, Sargodha, and Safdar Ranjha from NA-65. The tribunal issued notices to the returning officers and sought record on April 11.

In another appeal filed by Mohammad Ashraf Kalyar from PP-36, the tribunal upheld the decision of the returning officer and rejected his nomination papers.

It also rejected an appeal of Anwarul Hasnat from PP-27, Jhelum, whose nomination papers were rejected due to his dual nationality.