LHC judgment on Dar challenged in SC

Petitioner wants LHC order allowing Dar to contest election set aside

ISLAMABAD: The Lahore High Court (LHC) judgment allowing former finance minister Ishaq Dar to contest the Senate election has been challenged in the Supreme Court.

The petition, moved by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) candidate Nawazish Pirzada, requests the top court to set aside the LHC order which allowed Dar to contest the election on technocrat’s seat from the province of Punjab.

On February 17, an appellate election tribunal of the LHC granted Dar permission to contest the election to the upper house, setting aside an order of the returning officer (RO) who had rejected his nomination papers.

The high court observed that the petitioner has no locus standi to file the petition being not an objector to the nomination papers of Ishaq Dar before RO, therefore the petition was dismissed.



On March 3, the former finance minister won a Senate seat as a PML-N-backed independent candidate.

The petition contends that an absconder cannot contest elections by the accountability court on December 11, 2017.

“The tribunal illegally against law and contrary brushed aside the stance of the petitioner on the sole score that the petitioner was not an objector to the nomination papers of the candidate at the time of scrutiny,” says the petition.

It is also submitted that Section 113(3) of the Election Act 2017 provides ample jurisdiction to the Appellate Tribunal to take into account an information which would entail disqualification of the candidate.

The petition says that the high court has misconceived and misinterpreted the vision of Section113 of the Election Act 2017.

“The apex court has categorically declared that a fugitive from law loses his normal rights granted under the substantive as well as procedural laws,” reads the petition.

“The impugned order may very kindly be set aside, resultantly the nomination papers of the respondent no. 4 from the seat of Technocrat, province of Punjab, Senate Elections 2018, may very kindly be rejected and election of the respondent no. 4 may be declared void and set aside,” the petition reads.



The Election Commission of Pakistan had rejected Dar’s nomination papers for being a court absconder in a corruption and money-laundering reference pending against him in an accountability court.

Dar had also submitted his papers for two different Senate election categories with a single bank account. The unattested copies of his CNIC attached with his papers were also a reason for the rejection of his papers.

On March 7, the Supreme Court wondered how Ishaq Dar was elected in the Senate when he has been declared an absconder. Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan observed that when someone is declared an absconder he loses all his rights. Therefore, the right to contest elections is also stripped away.

However, some experts say that now after the amendment in Election Act 2017, the absconder can contest election. They say that an absconder cannot open bank account and this matter will also be considered by the apex court.