Local govt nomination issue referred to LHC full bench

JIT investigating Kasur scandal submits inquiry report to LHC

LAHORE: Last week, Lahore High Court (LHC) referred the matter of proposer and seconder for candidates of local bodies elections to a full bench.

An LHC bench, headed by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, issued notices on identical petitions filed by several candidates.

On October 13, Justice Ibadur Rehman Lodhi had held that rejection of nomination papers of candidates having proposers and seconders from other constituencies was illegal and unconstitutional.

He accepted several petitions challenging rejection of nomination papers. “In this view of the matter, all the writ petitions are allowed; the impugned orders rejecting the nomination papers of the petitioners and dismissal of their appeals are set-aside, and the nomination papers, filed by the petitioners, stand accepted,” he had said.

The petitioners’ nomination papers had been rejected on the grounds that their proposers or seconders were not voters in the relevant wards.

“According to Rule 12 (2) of Punjab Local Government (conduct of Elections ), any voter of a union council or ward may propose or second the name of any eligible person to be a candidate for an election of a member or as the case may be, the chairman and the vice chairman of a union council,” the order said.

Another judge of the LHC had held that it was necessary for a candidate in the local bodies elections to have his/her proposer and seconder from the same union council and same ward from where he/she was contesting elections.

Kasur incident

Last week, the joint investigation team (JIT) probing the Kasur sex scandal submitted its report to the LHC.

JIT head Malik Abubakar Khuda Baksh presented the report before Chief Justice Manzoor Ahmed Malik. According to the report, 239 children were sexually abused and 31 cases were registered. “The challans of 19 suspects found responsible have been submitted before an anti-terrorism court. A report for the exoneration of six suspects has also been submitted before the court. The challan of six suspects has been sent to the conventional courts as their role did not fall under the Anti Terrorism Act,” he said.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Sana Murad and others. Her counsel, Aftab Bajwa, stated that the incident had caused terror in society. “Police are not including anti-terror clauses in the FIRs,” he said.

Bajwa had requested the court to refer the trial to a military court.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 19^th, 2015.