Daily Times

A three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial will hear a petition of former president Pervez Musharraf, five months after his death, filed against rejection of his nomination papers for National Assembly seat from Kasur in the 2013 general election.

The bench which also comprises Justice Ayesha A. Malik and Justice Hassan Azhar Rizvi will hear the petition on July 17 (Monday).

The returning officer appointed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in 2013, accepting an appeal filed by Advocate Javed Kasuri against nomination papers of former president and military ruler Pervez Musharraf, had rejected Musharraf’s papers on six grounds.

Consequently, the returning officer had declared the former army chief ineligible to contest the election from NA-139 seat. The ECP debarred him from the polls in Kasur in view of court cases filed against him for violating the country’s constitution several times.

Musharraf had approached the Supreme Court and challenged the rejection of his nomination papers by the RO. Earlier, despite the former military ruler’s extreme desire, the Supreme Court did not fix the plea against his conviction in a high treason case for the last three years. After his death, the appeal is expected to become infructuous.

The SC did not fix Musharraf’s plea in an open court challenging the registrar’s decision of not entertaining his appeal, in which he sought to overturn the Dec 17, 2019 death sentence awarded to him by the special court in a high treason case.