Daily Times

KARACHI: An appeal challenging Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s nomination papers for NA-243 was filed on Tuesday.

Citizen Abdul Wahab Baloch filed an appeal against Imran Khan’s candidature with a returning officer over the Sita White case.

Imran Ismail, counsel for Imran Khan, appeared before the court and was asked if he had received a copy of the appeal. Ismail replied in the affirmative and sought time for cross-examination, saying that the PTI chief was in Saudi Arabia for Umrah.

“He (Imran) will return on June 18,” said Ismail.

To this, the court said that the appeal was not a judicial case and the rules outlined by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) were to be followed. The court ordered Ismail to file a request for an extension to submit a respond, the verdict on which would be announced on June 19.

Ismail then submitted a written request, asking the court for more time to submit a response to the appeal against Imran’s candidature.

Scrutiny of Imran’s nomination papers was then postponed till June 19, which is the last date for the process.

It might be mentioned that the PTI chief had submitted nominations from National Assembly constituencies in Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar, and Mianwali.

Speaking to the media outside the court, Ismail said that the accusations had been levelled against Imran either to gain ‘cheap publicity’ or at someone’s behest. Meanwhile, former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan’s nomination papers for NA-59 Rawalpindi were also challenged on Tuesday.

The appeal filed with the returning officer argued that the former minister was involved in an attack on a court. “He, therefore, is ineligible to contest the upcoming general elections.” Nisar has submitted his nominations papers to a returning officer at the Rawalpindi office of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for NA-59 Rawalpindi, NA-63 Taxila and Punjab Assembly’s PP-10 and PP-12. The returning officer has asked him to appear on June 13 (today) for scrutiny of his nomination papers. Nisar had earlier announced to contest the polls as an independent candidate.

Published in Daily Times, June 13^th 2018.