The Election commission of Pakistan (ECP), on Thursday, adjourned the hearing of a petition against the Pakistan Tehreek e Insaaf (PTI) Member Provincial Assembly (MPA) Salman Naeem till September 12 and issued the notices to Passport Office Multan, concerned Union Council and Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Multan to appear before the ECP with record on the next hearing.
The petition was filed by Naveed Anjum, a voter from PP-217. The PTI MPA fought the general elections of 2018 from PP-217 and defeated Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi from this constituency.
Justice Muzammil Akhtar Shabbir of Lahore High Court Multan Bench referred this petition to the ECP on August 6 with the directions to decide this issue within two weeks and redress grievance of the complainant.
The petitioner’s lawyer produced more evidence against the PTI MPA and alleged that he had availed the tax amnesty scheme and declared his hidden assets which show that he was a tax-evader besides possessing two CNIC cards. It may be recalled that Salman Naeem was reportedly an underage and changed his date of birth in his Matriculation certificate. After that, he changed his age on the CNIC but he did not surrender his previous card and used it in getting passport, NTN number and different bank accounts.
Published in Daily Times, September 7th 2018.