Daily Times

LARKANA: The returning officer (RO) of provincial assembly seat PS-10 on Tuesday rejected the objections raised by Qadir Bux Bhatti, and approved the nomination form submitted by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) candidate Faryal Talpur to contest election from PS-10 after hearing arguments from both sides on the last day of scrutiny conducted at Ratodero in Larkana district of Sindh province.

Reportedly, a senior advocate Ghulam Dastagir Shahani appeared for Bhatti while Farooq H. Naik defended Talpur.

Shahani repeated the allegations accusing Talpur of possessing properties in her employee’s name Ghulam Abbas Zardari while she holds attorney powers.

He further alleged that Talpur is an executive director of a company in Dubai which is kept in the name of ‘Ayesha’ while Ayesha is daughter of Talpur.

“Talpur failed to declare all of her financial assets, hence she has failed to comply with Article 62 and 63 of the Constitution of Pakistan,” he argued. Contrarily, Farooq H. Naik rejected his claims, and said that vote of the applicant Qadir Bux Bhatti was not registered in PS-10. Regarding the company in Dubai, he said that it was closed in the year 2013, and hence ‘Iqama’ has also been seized since 2013.

Naik responded that the properties mentioned in the objection do not belong to Talpur while these were owned by Abbas Zardari.

“If they have any substantial evidence regarding her ownership, they should have produced it before the court,” he said while adding that the objections were filed on the basis of old documents which carry no importance.

Moreover, Naik claimed that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the State Bank of Pakistan and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) also cleared his client, and neither government loans nor tax was pending in her name.

“Therefore, nomination form submitted by my client Faryal Talpur should be accepted,” he argued. Consequently, the RO ordered to accept Talpur’s nomination forms.

Meanwhile, the Larkana district PPP president Abdul Fatah Bhutto withdrew from the election contest, and nomination form of ex-MPA Muhammad Ali Bhutto was also cleared.

Published in Daily Times, June 20^th 2018.