Daily Times

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Monday allowed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders Azam Swati and Murad Saeed to contest Senate elections scheduled on April 2, Aaj News reported.

The court announced its verdict on a writ petition challenging the PHC appellate tribunal’s decision to allow these leaders to participate in Senate elections.

Murad Saeed has been cleared for Senate elections, while Swati will contest for the technocrat seat.

Taj Muhammad Afridi – a Karachi-based business tycoon and a former Senator from erstwhile FATA – had challenged the tribunal’s decision.

Last week, a PHC appellate tribunal comprising Justice Shakeel Ahmed announced the verdict it had reserved earlier and overturned the initial rejection of their nomination papers.

An Appellate Tribunal of Lahore High Court (LHC) had previously overturned ECP’s decision and cleared PTI worker Sanam Javed for Senate polls.

The electoral watchdog has already appointed returning officers and polling officers for the forthcoming elections on 48 seats of the Senate.

As per the ECP, in all the provinces elections will be held for seven general seats, two women seats and two technocrat seats. Apart from this, there will be an election for one minority seat from Punjab and one minority seat from Sindh while one general and one technocrat seat from Islamabad.

The ECP has further informed that relevant Provincial Election Commissioners have been appointed as Returning Officers for the Senate elections in all four provinces. For Islamabad, the director general, training, ECP, has been appointed as the Returning Officer.

Twelve Senators each will be elected from Sindh and Punjab and two from Islamabad, while 11 Senators each will be elected from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.