Daily Times

The Election Commission on Tuesday dismissed the petition seeking the disqualification of PPP leader Faryal Talpur while Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was given 15-day time to remove contradiction in his returns.

The ECP two member bench headed by acting Chief Election Commissioner Altaf Ibrahim heard disqualification petition against Faryal Talpur and action against the contradiction exist in the returns submitted by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

Talpur, who is the sister of Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, was elected as an MPA from PS-10 Larkana-I.

Farooq H Naek, Talpur’s lawyer, appeared before the two-member bench. The commission, however, dismissed the case because of the prosecution’s continuous absence from the hearings.

On October 18, PTI’s Arsalan Taj had filed the petition in the ECP seeking Talpur disqualification for allegedly hiding assets.

According to the petition, Talpur didn’t declare her 60-acre land in Shahdadkot, while another land owned by her in Shahdadpur is not mentioned in revenue department’s record.

It said the PPP lawmaker also hid her plot in Nawabshah from the ECP.

On the other hand, the lawyer raised concerns over ECP’s jurisdiction in the case pertaining to Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, adding that as per the election act, the action cannot be taken over a contradiction in the submission of returns.

On which member of the ECP Irshad Qaiser said, if a member hides his assets and tells a lie then action can be taken under the corrupt practices.

Farooq H Naik said that the ECP can only ask clarification over the contradiction while connecting the contradiction to the corrupt practices is not right.

After hearing the arguments, the ECP ordered to remove the contradictions in the returns within 15-day time and adjourned the hearing till August 6.