‘Loan defaulters, tax evaders escape scrutiny’

Rules and regulations were not observed during the scrutiny of the nomination papers, says petitioner's counsel.

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court on Monday directed the petitioner’s lawyer to advance more arguments regarding the maintainability of a petition which seeks directions to the Election Commission to restrain loan and tax defaulters, fake degree holders and others from election by scrutinising their nomination papers again.

Justice Ijazul Ahsan passed the directions on a petition moved by a citizen, Khalid, through his lawyer Mian Hanif Tahir.

The petition has named Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leaders Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leaders Imran Khan and Javed Hashmi, former Sindh chief minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim among respondents.

Mian Tahir said that rules and regulations had not been observed during the scrutiny of the nomination papers. He said that details had not been obtained from the Federal Board of Revenue, the Federal Investigation Agency, the National Accountability Bureau, the State Bank of Pakistan and other government departments.

He added that a declaration by the Supreme Court in the Asghar Khan case against some politicians, including Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif, Javed Hashmi and others, was available but their nomination papers had still met scrutiny.

Loan defaulters and tax evaders had escaped from scrutiny, he said.

He contended that the scrutiny process was not only very meagre but many articles of the Constitution and sections of the Peoples Representation Act 1976 had been ignored.

The lawyer requested the court to issue directions to the ECP to scrutinise the nomination papers of those against whom appropriate materials were available.

The judge directed the counsel for the petitioner to advance more arguments regarding maintainability of the petition before he adjourned the hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 30^th, 2013.