ISLAMABAD: Hearing multiple petitions filed by political leaders who had been disqualified by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for disobeying directions of their respective political parties, the Supreme Court upheld the disqualification of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) former Abbottabad president for fielding himself as an independent candidate after his party refused to allot him a ticket to contest the local government elections.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday held that Ali Khan Jadoon and Sardar Waqar Nabi were the PTI’s nominated candidates in the Aug 8, 2015 local government elections for the seats of nazim and naib nazim of the Abbottabad District Council. PTI’s former Abbottabad president Sardar Sher Bahadur had been declared disqualified under Section 78-A of the Khyber Pakhtun­khwa Local Government Act 2013.

The SC undid the ECP’s earlier decision against Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl’s (JUI-F) Asghar Ali and four others from the Lakki Marwat Dsitrict Council, but upheld the disqualification of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Noor Jehan.

The 24-page judgement, authored by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, was announced on Wednesday after a three-judge bench comprising Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Faisal Arab, apart from the chief justice, had earlier reserved its ruling on the petition on Sept 22.

Sher Bahadur had contested local govt elections as an independent candidate after being refused party ticket

Mr Ali of the JUI-F, along with four others from the Lakki Marwat District Council, had filed appeals against their disqualification. They were removed for casting their votes in favour of candidates fielded by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the PTI for the posts of nazim and naib nazim.

Sardar Bahadur was PTI’s president for Abbottabad but was disqualified on Jan 25 last year by the ECP under Section 78-A of the KP Local Government Act on a reference moved by PTI’s KP organiser Fazal Mohammad Khan. Section 78-A was introduced in the law to discourage ‘horse trading’ by empowering the party head to withdraw the party membership of a member who violates the party’s policy or discipline.

Since Sardar Bahadur was not granted a party ticket to contest the 2015 local bodies elections from Khel Urban (Abbottabad) union council, he had set up a forward bloc for contesting the local governmnet elections as an independent candidate and even defeated the PTI candidate with a huge margin.

Subsequently, Sardar Bahadur and Shaukat Ali Tanoli filed their nomination papers for the next phase of the election of nazim and naib nazim of the Abbottabad District Council scheduled for Aug 8, 2015. The PTI fielded Ali Khan Jadoon and Sardar Waqar Nabi as its candidates for the same seats.

The chief justice observed in the judgement that the PTI leaders were aware that the party had awarded tickets to Mr Jadoon and Sardar Nabi and there was no dispute over that within the party.

The nominee of the party had issued a declaration of defection against Sardar Bahadur on Sept 14, 2015 on the grounds that he had disobeyed and violated the PTI’s decision and directions to support, assist and vote for PTI’s ticket holder and candidate for the office of district nazim and naib nazim. The judgement said that Sardar Bahadur had himself submitted nomination papers as an independent candidate against the candidate nominated by the party and cast his vote in favour of a rival candidate for the seat of naib nazim.

Referring to Mr Ali of the JUI-F and four others from the Lakki Marwat District Council, the Supreme Court reversed the ECP’s decision to disqualify them after observing that there were no specific decisions from the JUI-F head to abstain from casting votes, hence the petitioner had not defected from the party. The five members had cast their votes in favour of PPP and PTI candidates in the elections of nazim and naib nazim. In the case of PML-N’s woman councillor Noor Jehan, who had cast her vote in favour of the rival PTI candidate for the seat of tehsil and district nazim/naib nazim, the Supreme Court upheld the ECP’s Oct 29, 2015 decision to disqualify her.

Published in Dawn, December 21st, 2017