Daily Times

LAHORE: On Monday, another Lahore High Court (LHC) judge refused to hear petitions by PTI leader Jamshed Iqbal Cheema and his wife Musarrat Cheema challenging the rejection of their nomination papers for NA-133 (Lahore) by-election.

The petitions came up for hearing before a division bench consisting of Justice Shujaat Ali Khan and Justice Faisal Zaman. Justice Zaman recused himself from the case, after which the matter was referred to the LHC chief justice to form a new bench to hear and decide it.

The LHC chief justice last week reconstituted the bench after Justice Shahid Waheed declined to hear the petitions.

Jamshed Iqbal Cheema and his wife approached the LHC after an election tribunal dismissed their appeal against the returning officer’s (RO) decision to reject their nomination papers.

The petitioners pleaded with the high court to set aside the rejection of their papers and allow them to contest the by-election scheduled for Dec 5.

On Nov 5, the tribunal comprising LHC Justice Shahid Jameel rejected the appeals after hearing arguments from the lawyers of the petitioners, the PML-N  and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

It is relevant to mention here that the returning officer (RO) had rejected the nomination papers of Cheema and his wife Musarrat (his covering candidate). He rejected on the ground that the proposers and seconders for the two are not residents of the constituency as required under the relevant election laws.