Results recalled: PML-N MNA from Jhang disqualified for being a bank loan defaulter

Ludhianvi of the Ahle-Sunnat-Wal-Jamaat declared the returned candidate.

FAISALABAD:

Election Tribunal Judge Javed Yousaf on Wednesday disqualified Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s MNA Sheikh Muhammad Akram, who was elected from Jhang (NA-89). The tribunal has directed the Election Commission of Punjab to notify that the losing candidate, Maulana Muhammad Ahmad Ludhianvi of the Ahle-Sunnat-Wal-Jamaat, as the returned candidate.

The election tribunal passed the order on a petition filed by Mutahida Deeni Mahaz central leader Maulana Muhammad Ahmad Ludhianvi. Ludhianvi had alleged that Akram was not an eligible candidate as envisaged by Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution. He had said that Akram was a bank loan defaulter and therefore did not fulfil the condition of being “Sadiq and Ameen” (truthful and trustworthy). Ludhianvi had said that Akram had also rigged the elections and requested the court to set aside the election result and declare him [Ludhianvi] the returned candidate of the May general elections.

After recording the evidence and arguments in the case, the tribunal ruled the election result declaring Akram as the winner were void and directed the election commission to notify Ludhianvi as the returned candidate.

The court also disqualified Akram from contesting the by-election. Akram had defeated Ludhianvi in the May 11, 2013, elections with a slim 2,726-vote lead. In 2002, Akram’s son Sheikh Waqas Akram had contested the elections on the Millat Party’s ticket and had lost to Maulana Azam Tariq, of the now defunct Sipa-i-Sahaba. However, after Maulana Azam Tariq’s assassination in 2003, Waqas Akram won the by-election as an independent candidate.

Waqas Akram later joined the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid and won the 2008 elections on a PML-Q ticket and became the federal minister of education.

A few days before the 2013 elections, however, he switched to the PML-N. Waqas Akram was disqualified first by a returning officer and then by an election tribunal for holding a bogus bachelor’s degree. The PML-N then awarded the ticket to his father, Sheikh Muhammad Akram, who was also his covering candidate.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 10^th, 2014.