The tribunal will continue to hear appeals against decisions of ROs till April 17. PHOTO: EXPRESS/FILE
The appeals tribunal set up by the Election Commission of Pakistan has given 40 candidates, including former provincial sports minister Syed Aqil Shah, the green light to contest elections.
One of nine such tribunals established countrywide to hear appeals against returning officers’ (RO) rejection and acceptance of nomination papers, the Peshawar tribunal gave its decision on Saturday.
Comprising Justice Mian Fasihul Mulk, Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Irshad Qaiser, the tribunal decided in favour of Awami National Party’s Syed Aqil Shah.
Aqil Shah filed his nomination papers to contest the 2013 polls from PK-4 Peshawar. His papers, however, were rejected by the RO. The officer objected Shah did not fulfil the criteria stated under Article 62 as he had been proven guilty of contesting the 2008 elections with a forged degree.
The RO further stated Shah was guilty of adopting corrupt practices which were exposed during the high court hearing where it was said he presented four different graduation degrees. According to the RO, Shah only submitted his intermediate qualifications once the requirement for a graduate degree was dropped.
On Saturday, the tribunal set aside the verdict of the RO and allowed Shah to contest elections. The tribunal stated its decision was based on precedents set by the Jamshed Dasti case and other Supreme Court cases. Earlier in the fake degree case, Shah was sentenced to one year in prison and fined Rs3,000 by a high court, but the court later quashed his sentence and released him on bail.
Meanwhile, the tribunal rejected the appeal against Mohammad Azam Khan Swati’s nomination. Filed by Sardar Mohammad Yousaf, the appeal maintained Swati had not disclosed complete details of his assets in the nominations papers accepted by the RO of NA-2 Mansehra-1. The tribunal rejected the allegations leveled against Swati, allowing him to contest.
The tribunal also issued a notice to former provincial deputy speaker Ikramullah to appear before the tribunal on April 17 (last day for appeals) to respond to allegations leveled by Ghufranullah Sajid from PK-23. Sajid alleged Ikramullah had competed in the 2008 elections on a fake degree.
Sajid also alleged the former speaker was involved in an attack on Sajid’s son, for which he is still wanted by the police. The tribunal asked Ikramullah to appear before the tribunal and respond.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 14th, 2013.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ