Returning officers reject nomination papers of Imran Khan, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Hammad Azhar, Yasmin Rashid, Parvez Elahi, Moonis Elahi besides others n ROs in Multan accept nominations of Javed Hashmi, Jahangir Khan Tareen, Aamir Dogar n Verdict reserved regarding Sh Rashid’s nomination papers from NA-56 n Shoaib Shaheen says PTI will surely file appeals against rejection of nomination papers.

 

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE  -  The nomination pa­pers of Imran Khan the founder of Pakistan Teh­reek-e-Insaf (PTI) were rejected for National Assembly constituency NA-122 (Lahore) on Sat­urday. The returning of­ficer concerned rejected the nomination papers while accepting the ob­jections raised about it.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate and former MPA Mian Naseer had challenged the nomi­nation papers of PTI founder in NA-122. He stated that Imran Khan was ineligible due to a prior conviction. He submitted that the sec­onder of Imran Khan did not belong to the constituency.

The returning officer had reserved the de­cision on nomination papers of Imran Khan after hearing argu­ments from both sides on Thursday. The RO argued that the court’s verdict in Imran’s con­viction established that it was related to the offence, hence, he was subject to Article 63(1)(h) of the Constitution.

It is pertinent to men­tion here that nomina­tion papers of Khurram Latif Khosa were also rejected from NA-122 constituency.

Scrutiny of the nomi­nation papers filed by candidates for general elections-2024 con­cluded on Saturday. 

The appeals against the acceptance or re­jection of nomination papers can be submit­ted till Wednesday and decisions on these ap­peals will be made by the tenth of next month. The preliminary list of candidates will be dis­played on the eleventh of January and candi­dates can withdraw their nomination papers by January 12. The electoral sym­bols will be allotted on the thir­teenth of next month and poll­ing for the general elections will be held on February 8.

The returning officers reject­ed the nomination papers of PTI main leaders including party founder Imran Khan, Shah Mah­mood Qureshi, Hammad Azhar, Yasmin Rashid, former speaker Punjab Assembly Sibtain Khan, Usman Dar’s mother and oth­ers. The reason behind the re­jection varied, with multiple is­sues like non-compliance with constituency requirements be­sides objections raised by op­posing candidates.

On the last day of approv­al and rejection of nomination papers, various prominent po­litical heavyweights faced ap­proval and rejection ahead of upcoming polls.

On the other hand, the nomi­nation papers of Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz and Bilwal Bhu­tto were acceptance for their candidacy forms filed in Lahore. Nawaz Sharif nomination was approved from NA 130 Lahore. PML-N chief organiser Maryam Nawaz also secured success as her nomination papers were si­multaneously accepted from all constituencies in Lahore and Sargodha. Maryam Nawaz sub­mitted papers for Punjab As­sembly from three constituen­cies (PP 159, PP 160, and PP 165) in Lahore, along with one constituency (PP 80) in Sar­godha. Whereas, former prime minister Imran Khan’s papers were also rejected from two na­tional assembly constituencies in Punjab. His nomination pa­pers were rejected for NA-122 Lahore and NA-89 Mianwali. From NA-89 Mianwali, Khuram Rokhari and Kahlil-ur-Rehman challenged Imran Khan can­didacy, arguing PTI’s founder conviction in Tosha Khana case made him ineligible to contest general elections.

In response to the rejection, PTI legal experts announced that Imran Khan will file an appeal in the tribunal seeking nomination approval. Addition­ally, PTI’s vice chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi also faced rejection as his nomination papers were rejected for NA-151 Multan and NA-214 Thar­parkar. The nomination papers of Zain Qureshi and Mehrba­no Qureshi were also rejected from NA-150 and NA-151 re­spectively. However, papers of other prominent political fig­ures from Multan like Javed Hashmi, Jahangir Tareen, and Aamir Dogar were approved in different constituencies.

PML-N’s leader and former federal minister Khawaja Saad Rafique nomination papers were accepted for NA-122 La­hore along with former Speaker National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq who also secured approval for his nomination papers from NA-117 in Lahore. PTI’s cen­tral Punjab’s secretary gener­al Sardar Azeem Ullah also se­cured successful approval for his nomination for National As­sembly constituency NA-124 and for two Punjab assembly seats PP-159 and PP-163. Haid­er Ali Khan Kharal’s nomination papers were also approved for NA-94 Kamalia. Ali Abid Kathia from Sahiwal also got his nom­ination forms approved for PP-201. Apart from that Abrarul Haq, the prominent singer and PTI’s Akmal Khan Bari both secure successful approval of their nomination papers for NA-117 Lahore.

As the PTI’s candidates are comparatively on the top in the rejection of nomination papers by the country’s election regu­lator in the scrutiny process, the party aims to knock on the door of the concerned legal forum in coming days.

Over 28,000 nomination pa­pers with the association of political parties and indepen­dents were submitted in the election commission, in which, many candidates’ nomination papers were rejected with dif­ferent objections through­out the country. The electoral watchdog, in its all concern­ing offices, has issued the list of candidates whose nomination was rejected or accepted.

The nomination paper of PTI’s Shah Mahmood Qureshi and his son Zainuddin Qureshi, reject­ed due to non-appearance in various cases. PTI main leader Parvez Elahi’s and Moonis Elahi nomination paper rejected from his constituency with some ob­jections on it. Likewise, former parliamentarians Asad Qais­er, Ali Muhammad Khan, Ham­mad Azhar, mother and wife of Usman Dar, Zartaj Gul, Qasim Suri, Amin Ali Gandapur, Murad Saeed, Abdul Majeed Khan Nia­zi, Malik Umar Aslam Awan, Ma­lik Hasan Aslam, Khuram Lat­if, Haleem Adil , Sardar Hasnain Bahadur Khan Dreshak ,Zul­fi Bukhari ,Azam Swati , Sahib­zada Sibghatullah, Dr. Amjad Khan, Fazal Hakim Khan, Mian Sharafat, Salim-ur-Rahman and others were also not accepted, according to the sources. The final list of candidates through­out the country by ECP will for­mally be shared by the top elec­tion body on January 11, 2024. 

The verdict regarding the nomination papers of Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rashid from NA-56 has been reserved. The scru­tiny was held again against Rashid’s nomination papers in NA-56. The verdict had been reserved after the completion of the hearing. The scrutiny period for candidates appear­ing in the 2024 general elec­tions has concluded, resulting in the rejection of the nomina­tion papers of a large number of candidates with the affilia­tion were rejected.

Talking to The Nation, former Secretary Election Commis­sion of Pakistan [ECP] Kanwar Dilshad said that although the nomination papers are rejected, still there is a proper forum to file appeals against the decision of the returning officers.

“Yes, a large number of nom­ination papers were rejected in the past history as even nom­ination papers former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and for­mer prime minister Benazir were rejected with some ob­jections,” said former secretary ECP, mentioning that the nomi­nation papers of large number of candidates were later accept­ed by the concerned tribunal af­ter filing the appeal.

When contacted PTI legal counsel Shoaib Shaheen said the ECP has been targeting only the candidates of Pakistan Teh­reek-e-Insaf [PTI]. He said a large number of nomination pa­pers by the candidates with the affiliation with PTI have been re­jected with different objections. “We will surely appeal against the rejection of genuine nomi­nation papers,” he said, arguing that the objections against the PTI’s candidates were mostly entertained by the ROs. He said they would fight against this po­litical victimisation.

Political and constitutional experts viewed that the nomi­nation papers in the past were also rejected over the questions by the ROs. Most of the nomina­tion papers are likely to be ac­cepted in the tribunal, they said.

Meanwhile, the nomina­tion papers of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, chairman of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), were ac­cepted from National Assembly constituency NA-127, here on Saturday. The returning officer concerned rejected the objec­tions raised against the eligibili­ty of the PPP chairman. 

Talking to the media out­side returning officer’s of­fice, PPP leader Zulfiqar Ali Badr confirmed the develop­ment. Earlier, the counsel for Bilawal Bhutto submitted an agreement about election al­liance, between Pakistan Peo­ple’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Peoples Party parliamentar­ians (PPPP), to the return­ing officer. As per agreement, both parties would take part in elections on a joint election symbol, arrow.

A day ago, a written reply to the objections on nomination papers of Bilawal Bhutto was also submitted to the returning officer by a legal advisor. The re­ply stated that the objector was not a voter of NA-127 but a resi­dent of Narowal, adding that he lacked the standing to raise the objection.

It further submitted that there was a mistake in the nomination papers of Bilawal Bhutto where Pakistan Peoples Party Parlia­mentarians had been written. He said that it was a human er­ror, adding that it could be cor­rected as per election rules.

A citizen, Muhammad Ayaz, had filed objections against Bi­lawal Bhutto’s nomination pa­pers, stating that Bilawal Bhu­tto, in his papers for NA-127, pledged allegiance to the PPPP whereas he himself was the chairman of the PPP. 

He stated that both were dis­tinct political parties with sep­arate election symbols. He fur­ther submitted that Bilawal Bhutto was the Chairman of PPP and Asif Zardari was the Presi­dent of PPPP. 

He argued that as per the Elec­tions Act 2017, a person could be a member of one party at a time. The nomination papers of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari as a can­didate of the PPPP were being filed against the Elections Act, he added. 

The returning officer had re­served the verdict on nomi­nation papers of Bilawal after hearing arguments of both sides on Thursday. Meanwhile, the nomination papers of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif were ac­cepted from National Assembly constituency NA-130 ( Lahore), here on Saturday. 

The returning officer con­cerned accepted the nomination papers as no one filed objection against the PML-N supremo. 

However, the returning officer rejected the nomination papers of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Dr Yasmin Rashid from the constituency.

Meanwhile, the nomination papers of PML-N President She­hbaz Sharif were also accepted from Lahore’s NA-123, besides PTI’s senior lawyers Sardar La­tif Khan Khosa and Azhar Sid­dique. Moreover, the nomina­tion papers of PML-N leader Hamza Shehbaz were also ac­cepted from provincial assem­bly constituency PP-147.