PESHAWAR, Jan 13: The Awami National Party has decided to field its former central president, Asfandyar Wali Khan, for the scheduled Senate elections after the Supreme Court allowed two losing candidates to file their nomination papers for the said polls, party sources said.
A party leader privy to the whole situation confided to Dawn that deliberations were made by the ANP high-ups after the Supreme Court delivered its verdict on Jan 9.
It is learnt that a petition will be filed before the Supreme Court on behalf of Asfandyar Wali Khan, in which the court would be requested to allow him filing of the nomination papers. The party high-ups has already requested one of its trusted legal experts to draft the petition and file it in the Supreme Court at the earliest.
Mr Khan has lost to Maulana Gohar Shah of MMA during the October general elections.
After the polls the chief executive, Gen Pervaiz Musharraf amended the Conduct of General Elections Order, 2002, and added section 8AA in it whereby no losing candidate could contest for the senate elections.
The said amendment was assailed before the Supreme Court by two of the losing candidates, Jawed Jabbar of Millat Party and Ayub Khattak of Pakistan Muslim League-Q. The court allowed them filing of nomination papers with the condition that the acceptance of their nomination papers would be subject to final decisions in their petitions.
Sources informed Dawn that soon after the judgment was pronounced some members of the ANP suggested that Mr Khan should contest for the senate polls as the presence of a leader of Asfandyar’s calibre on behalf of ANP was necessary in the parliament. The party has not won a single National Assembly seats during the general elections.
Earlier, the ANP had nominated Jehangir Khan advocate of Charssada for the Senate polls. The ANP has 10 members in the NWFP Assembly and it expects winning a single Senate seat out of the total 14 general seats.
In the said order the Supreme Court had granted relief to the two petitioners and has not mentioned whether other losing candidates could file their nomination papers or not. Due to same reason the ANP considers it appropriate to challenge the issue before the Supreme Court.