Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: An Appellate Tribunal of the Islamabad High Court on Thursday ordered the retuning officer to appear before it in-person on Friday (today) along with the record pertaining to rejection of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s nomination papers from NA-53 constituency of the federal capital.

The IHC tribunal comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani issued the orders while hearing a plea filed by PTI chief Imran Khan challenging the dismissal of his nomination papers from NA-53 constituency of Islamabad.

In his arguments, Babar Awan, counsel for Imran Khan, contended that the nomination papers of his client scrutinised on June 19 were rejected on weak grounds. He said Imran Khan is the head of the PTI, which is the largest political party and is waging a struggle for provision of basic rights to the people of Pakistan. He contended that his client neither concealed any facts nor misstated anything in the nomination papers, thus rejection of his nomination papers by the returning officer was an unjust decision and deserved to be set aside in the interest of justice.

To a query by Justice Kayani that why Imran Khan’s nomination papers were rejected, Babar Awan contended that his papers were rejected on flimsy grounds. He pleaded that the decision of the returning officer be set aside and he be directed to accept the nomination papers of PTI chief.

Meanwhile, Justice Kayani adjourned the hearing until Friday (today).

On June 19, the NA-53 returning officer had rejected the nomination papers of Imran Khan as well as former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor Sardar Mehtab Khan and estranged PTI leader Ayesha Gulalai for failing to properly fill out the affidavit attached with the nomination papers.

All these candidates failed to list important contributions they made in their constituencies during the last five years. Imran Khan left the entry under Clause N of the affidavit blank and thus failed to comply with the requirement of filing completely filled papers. “The affidavit is not duly filled in the way it was required as per the spirit of the direction. So leaving me with no option but to presume the affidavit being incomplete in its filing,” returning officer Muhammad Adnan observed in his written order. The returning officer observed that by leaving out this crucial information, the candidates had deprived the voters in the constituency to inspect these details and object to them if needed.

On June 19, which was the last day for scrutiny of nomination papers, Imran Khan’s candidacy was also rejected from NA-95 (Mianwali). However, his nomination papers were accepted from NA-35 (Bannu), NA-131 (Lahore) and NA-243 (Karachi).

Appeals against the decisions of the returning officers (ROs) can be filed in the relevant appellate tribunals by June 22. The decisions on all the appeals will be made by June 27, after which the revised 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 will be June 30. Polling for general election 2018 will be held on July 25.

Published in Daily Times, June 22^nd 2018.