The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has formed at least 20 tribunals to hear appeals on verdicts of the nomination papers of candidates for the upcoming general election in the country.
High court judges will also be a part of the appellate tribunals. Of the 20, six tribunals are in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, eight in Punjab, four in Sindh, and two in Balochistan. In KP, Justice Syed Afsar Shah, Justice Musarrat Hilali, Justice Lal Jan Khattak, Justice Mohammad Ghazanfar, Justice Abdul Shakoor and Justice Ijaz Anwar will be presiding over the trials in Peshawar, Abbotabad, Mingora, Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan.
In Punjab, Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi, Justice Faisal Zaman Khan, Justice Ali Akbar Qureshi and Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh form the tribunal for Lahore. Justice Masood Abid Naqvi will preside over the Bhawalpur bench, Justice Qazi Mohammad Amin Ahmed and Justice Mirza Viqas will be presiding over Multan bench and Justice Ibadur Rehman will hear cases in Rawalpindi.
Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha, Justice Yousaf Ali Sayeed and Justice Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi will be overlooking the principal seat in Karachi. Justice Fahim Siddiqui will overlook the Sukkur bench. Justice Mohammad Hashim Khan Kakkar and Justice Muhammad Ejaz Swati will hold trials at the principal seat in Quetta.
The scrutiny of nomination papers concluded on Tuesday (June 19). As per the election schedule, appeals against rejection or acceptance of nomination papers can be filed by June 22. The decision on the appeals will be made by June 27, after which the final list of the candidates will be shared on June 28. The last date for withdrawal of candidature will be June 29. The date for allocation of electoral symbols and publication of the final list of contesting candidates is be June 30. Polling will be conducted on July 25.
Published in Daily Times, June 20th 2018.