By-elections: Appeals challenging candidature of two Shirazis allowed

Earlier, a district returning officer had overruled objections filed by the petitioners.

KARACHI:

The Sindh High Court allowed appeals against the candidature of two candidates belonging to the Shirazi group who are intending to contest the upcoming by-elections for a National Assembly seat from Thatta.

The appeal was allowed on Saturday against the concealing of facts regarding age and assets.

The head of the special election appellate bench, Justice Ghulam Sarwar Korai, passed the order on appeals against the candidature of Syed Riaz Hussain Shah Shirazi and Syed Fayaz Ali Shah Shirazi.

Their rivals, Shamsun Nisa and Abdul Aziz Memon, had challenged the candidature of Shirazis to contest by-elections for the NA-237 seat scheduled for August 22.

Earlier, the petitioners had filed objections against the Shirazis with a district returning officer, who, however, overruled the objections and allowed the respondents to contest elections.

The petitioners claimed that Riaz Shah had contested general elections in 2008 by claiming he was 25 years old. He had changed his date of birth from January 2, 1983, to July 10, 1979. Similarly, Fayaz Shah changed it from January 1, 1985 to January 4, 1982, they alleged.

It was further stated that the Shirazis had also given wrong information about their assets, while they were also involved in illegally encroaching government lands belonging to the forest department, as declared by the district judge of Thatta. Yet, the returning officer allowed them to contest elections by accepting their nomination papers - which is a violation of law.

The petitioners’ lawyer, Haq Nawaz Talpur, pleaded to the court to set aside the returning officer’s order regarding the dismissal of objections. The bench allowed the appeals against the Shirazis.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 28^th, 2013.