Supreme Court of Pakistan gives relief to some senior leaders of Imran’s party before the elections

In a relief to jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, the Supreme Court of Pakistan has allowed its president Pervez Elahi and some other senior leaders to contest the general elections on February 8. A bench of Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail and Justice Athar Minallah on Friday heard an appeal challenging the cancellation of the candidature of Khan’s party president Ilahi by the Election Tribunal and Lahore High Court (LHC). The apex court also allowed other party leaders – Omar Aslam, Tahir Sadiq, Sanam Javed and Shaukat Basra – to contest the upcoming general elections. Ahead of the elections, Khan and his party suffered one blow after another when the Election Commission snatched the party’s election symbol ‘cricket bat’ and rejected the nomination papers of 71-year-old Khan and several top leaders on various grounds. Gave.

The court also directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to allot an election symbol to Ilahi and include it in the ballot papers. Ilahi, a two-time Chief Minister of Punjab province, had filed his candidature for the general elections, but it was rejected by the election authorities. He challenged this in the election tribunal, which rejected his petition. Later, he filed a petition against it in the LHC, but he did not get relief from there too and after that he had to approach the Supreme Court. Earlier, he filed two separate petitions in the apex court on Wednesday against the rejection of his candidature for National Assembly seats NA-64 and PP-32. His lawyer Faisal Siddiqui told the media that he later withdrew his petition regarding contesting the National Assembly seat. “We decided to contest (elections) only on one seat due to short time,” he said.

Justice Minallah highlighted during the hearing that it is the responsibility of the court to interpret the Election Act in such a way that people are not deprived of electing a representative of their choice. In his pleas, Siddiqui told the court that he had not yet received the full order from the returning officer, who had rejected Ilahi’s nomination papers. He said Elahi’s nomination was rejected on the grounds that he failed to open separate bank accounts for campaigning in different constituencies. Ilahi is contesting from five constituencies, he said. To this, Justice Minallah asked where it was said in the law that separate accounts were required for different constituencies. “If there is excess expenditure during the election campaign, the accounts are audited after the elections,” Siddiqui said.

“Another objection raised in the petition is that my client concealed the ownership of a 10 marla property in Punjab,” he said, adding, “My client never purchased this plot of land. He was in jail at that time.” He also said that the date of purchase was when Ilahi was in jail. Justice Mandokhail stressed that the reason for asking about a person’s assets was to compare what he had before and after coming to power. “If you are rejecting the ownership of the plot, that is fine,” he said, noting that Ilahi was a lucky man in that new properties had come up in his name. “You should donate these extra assets,” he quipped. At one point, Justice Minallah remarked that it seemed as if the caretaker government was involved in rejecting Ilahi’s nomination papers.

He said that the job of RO is to facilitate the candidates instead of burdening them. Justice Minallah said, unfortunately all this is happening with only one political party. After hearing the arguments, the court declared the decision of rejecting Elahi’s nomination papers invalid and allowed him to contest the elections from PP-32. Meanwhile, the bench hearing separate petitions of Tahir and Alam allowed them to contest the elections for the National Assembly, while another bench of the apex court allowed Basra and Sanam to contest the elections. This bench included Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Irfan Saadat Khan.

Disclaimer: IndiaTheNews has not edited this news. This news has been published from PTI-language feed.

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