SHC clears PTI’s Abro for Senate polls
PHOTO: FILE
The Sindh High Court ruled on Thursday that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate Saifullah Abro qualified for contesting Senate elections.
A two-member bench, headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, issued the ruling after hearing a plea challenging the election tribunal’s decision of rejecting Abro’s nomination papers for Senate polls.
During the hearing, the court asked Abro’s counsel to cite convincing examples of the PTI leader’s achievements at the national level.
The counsel told the court that apart from 13 projects, his client had to his credit the completion of other schemes in partnership. He said Abro was awarded top performance certificates.
“My client has completed various projects including flyovers and bridges,” the counsel told the court. “He also built a portion of the railway line and completed the Kotri Industrial Area project apart from the Larkana city flyover and railway line bridges in Kashmore and Khairpur,” the lawyer said.
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He added that his client also constructed flyover bridges in Tando Adam and Hyderabad, a flyover at railway line in Nawabshah, the Sukkur railway line bridge and executed projects in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. On hearing this, the court set aside the election tribunal decision and allowed Abro to contest the Senate polls.
The election tribunal had earlier rejected Abro’s nomination papers filed from Sindh to contest on seats reserved for technocrats.
Tribunal decision challenged
The Sindh Indus lawyers Forum challenged in SHC the election tribunal’s decision to accept the nomination papers of Pakistan Peoples Party candidate Palwasha Zai for Senate elections.
In a plea filed in the high court, the lawyers maintained that the election tribunal’s decision was not based on merit. They stated in the plea that Zai transferred her vote from Punjab to Karachi overnight, which was a violation of Articles 220 and 226 of the constitution. They claimed that Khan did not belong to Karachi.
Pointing out that Zai was a resident of Chakwal in Punjab and did not have a Karachi domicile, the lawyers moved the court to disqualify her from contesting the Senate polls.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 26th, 2021.