Islamabad, Jun 19: The nomination papers of several top leaders and party chiefs including Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan, former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) chief Pervez Musharraf and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s (MQM-P) Dr Farooq Sattar were rejected on Tuesday by returning officers (ROs) for some constituencies.
The prospective lawmakers can appeal the ROs’ decisions before appellate tribunals.
Meanwhile, nomination papers of PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, and PML-N’s Hamza Shahbaz and Maryam Nawaz following scrutiny were accepted, DawnNewsTV reported.
The detailed orders are awaited as the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) concluded the scrutiny of nomination papers at 4pm today.
The RO for NA-53 Islamabad rejected the nomination papers of Imran Khan, Abbasi, former PTI MNA Ayesha Gulalai and PML-N’s Sardar Mehtab Khan Abbasi on account of being incomplete.
Although the RO rejected Gulalai and Abdul Wahab Baloch’s objections against Khan’s candidature, he turned down the PTI chief’s papers saying he had submitted an incomplete affidavit as approved by the Supreme Court.
Being former members of the National Assembly, all four candidates were required to state their performance of last five years in the affidavit but failed to do so, the RO said.
Dr Sattar had filed nomination papers to contest elections on NA-245 constituency in Karachi. The RO for NA-245, Ahsan Khan, rejected Sattar’s nomination papers on the grounds that he is a declared absconder in two cases.
The official, in his decision, mentioned that Dr Sattar concealed the two cases and his status as an absconder. Dr Sattar has been declared an absconder in two cases pertaining to the violation of loudspeaker laws under Section 144.
Dr Sattar is among the nine MQM leaders who were booked in Nov 2015 under Section 144 of the Pakistan Penal Code for harassing commuters.
The cases had been registered at the Soldier Bazaar police station in connection with an MQM rally, which was held to register the protest against the arrest of MQM party workers as well as raids conducted by the Rangers at party offices.
Musharraf’s nomination papers, filed from Chitral for NA-1, were rejected by RO Mohammad Khan.
Last week, the Supreme Court (SC) had withdrawn its conditional directive allowing former dictator Musharraf to file nomination papers after he failed to appear for a court hearing.
Earlier, the apex court had said that the former army chief’s nomination papers would be received by the returning officer, but only be considered if Musharraf appeared in person at the SC Lahore registry.
Meanwhile, the RO for NA-247 in Karachi has summoned Musharraf to appear in person before 4pm today after his lawyers failed to appear for the scrutiny of his nomination papers.
The scrutiny of nomination papers to exclude ineligible candidates from the race started last Tuesday, a day after ROs completed the process of receiving nomination papers from prospective candidates.
According to the revised election schedule issued by the ECP on June 8, the last date for filing appeals against acceptance or rejection of nomination papers by the ROs is June 22. The last date for decision on the appeals by tribunals is June 27.
Revised lists of validly nominated candidates will be published on June 28 whereas the last date for withdrawal of candidature is June 29.
The final list of contesting candidates is expected to be published on June 30.
