On second-thought: ECP gives clean chit to 15 Senate hopefuls

Out of 19 petitions 18 belong to Fata and one from Punjab.


Irfan Ghauri February 26, 2015
. PHOTO: ECP.GOV.PK

ISLAMABAD:


The electoral authority has given a go-ahead to over a dozen candidates whose nomination papers for contesting the March 5 upper house of parliament polls were rejected during scrutiny on various grounds – mainly non-payment of taxes.


The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) which assumed the role of appellant authority over the decisions of returning officers (ROs), who conducted scrutiny of nomination papers of Senate elections, cleared 15 candidates on Thursday.

A total of 19 petitions were fixed for Thursday’s hearing and 11 others will be heard on Friday (today). Of those whose petitions were fixed, 18 belonged to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and one from Punjab.

Saud Majeed, a PML-N candidate from southern Punjab, got through to contest polls now as the commission has overturned the decision of RO from Punjab who had declared him ineligible to contest elections on charges of being a loan defaulter.

Majeed in his appeal claimed that a company, in which he had shares with others, owed the loan which the company has repaid. The company, he also said, was in litigation with the lending institution and the case was pending. Moreover he submitted a certificate that he had been paying his taxes regularly.

The 14 candidates from Fata whose appeals were accepted by the ECP  include Abdul Malik Qadri, Maulana Abdul Malik Wazir, Pir Mohammad Aqal Shah, Syed Fazal Abbas, Rahat Yousaf, Said Nawab, Malik Aslam Khan, Munir Khan Orakzai, Zar Khan Safi, Engineer Malik Rashid Ahmed Khan, Eid Gul Mengal, Hafiz Rashid Ahmed, Abdul Qadir and Muhammad Idrees Khan Safi.

They had taken the position that Fata is a tax-free area and they were exempted from payment of taxes.

All the 14 members were facilitated to fill out the required form to get a clean chit from FBR and their appeals were accepted.

Four candidates from Fata – Syed Muhammad Hussain, Dr Aurengzeb, Muhammad Kamran Khan and Habib Malik Orakzai – could not show up due to some confusion. Their appeals will now be heard on Friday (today) and a similar decision in their cases is expected.

Interestingly, election laws that bar the candidates from contesting polls on certain grounds also provide ways to get through it one way or the other.

One of the sections of Senate Election Laws stipulates that if the defaulter of utility bills or loans clears his liabilities before a final decision of his disqualification is made, the person should get a clean chit.

On the second and the final day of hearing of the appeals, the ECP will take up 11 important petitions. These are the candidates who were cleared by ROs, but their rivals had challenged their candidatures.

These include the appeals against candidature of sitting senators Rehman Malik, Pervez Rashid, Raja Zafarul Haq, Waqar Ahmed Khan and his brother Amaar Khan.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27th, 2015.

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