Dasti’s re-election challenged in SC

Petitioner holds Dasti guilty of impersonation, using forged documents.

ISLAMABAD: A petition was filed in the Supreme Court on Wednesday, challenging Jamshed Dasti’s re-election from NA-178 Muzzaffargarh 111.

Petitioner Nawabzada Adnan Ahmed Khan has prayed to the court to grant leave to appeal against the order passed by the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) Rawalpindi Bench on August 9.

In his petition, he submitted that Dasti was elected in the by-election held on May 15 after securing 53,811 votes against 50,102 secured by his opponent Nawabzada Iftikhar Ahmed Khan Babar.

After the election, he said, Babar filed an election petition with the Election Commission of Pakistan, challenging Dasti’s right to contest the polls since the Supreme Court had already disqualified Dasti for having a fake degree. Babar also filed a writ petition before the LHC on the same grounds in the nature of a quo warranto invoked in public interest. However, the LHC dismissed the petition on August 9, saying they could not rule on it as the matter was pending with the election commission.

He stated that the LHC had erred in holding that “admittedly the petitioner has also filed an election petition against Jamshed Dasti which is pending before the learned Election Commission of Pakistan, which has taken cognizance of the matter”.

He recalled that the Supreme Court, in its March 25 judgment, held that Jamshed Dasti had managed to “sneak” into the National Assembly by making a false statement on oath and by using forged documents. The petitioner said that Dasti was guilty of impersonation and of being a party to making false documents and then dishonestly using them for his benefit.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 23^rd, 2010.