SHC seeks comments on JI candidate’s plea against rejection of nomination papers

The Sindh High Court has issued notices to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the returning officer and others on a petition of a Jamaat-e-Islami candidate against the rejection of his nomination papers for contesting a by-election to the union committee chairman’s slot in Ibrahim Haideri Town.

Mohammad Sabir Khan Abbasi submitted in the petition that the returning officer rejected his nomination papers for contesting the UC chairman by-polls on the basis of proposer and seconder’s unverified affidavits.

The petitioner’s counsel Usman Farooq submitted that the proposer and seconder had put their signatures on the nomination papers, which were submitted before the returning officer voluntarily; however, later on some political figures of the area influenced them to withdraw support for the petitioner.

He alleged that the proposer and the seconder were made to sign forged affidavits by Karachi Mayor and Pakistan Peoples Party candidate Murtaza Wahab, and instead of verifying the same the returning officer without assigning any reason rejected his nomination papers. He submitted that the election tribunal also rejected the appeal without considering the facts of the case.

He said that the PPP candidate influenced the proposer and the seconder to drag out the petitioner from the by-poll contest on technical grounds

He further said that the petitioner was willing to provide a fresh proposer and a seconder, but the election tribunal did not consider his appeal. He requested the court to allow him to file a fresh proposer and a seconder to contest the by-polls of union committee of Ibrahim Haideri.

He contended that rival candidate Murtaza Wahab was not a resident of the locality and he could not contest the by-polls for the union committee under the local bodies law.

The court was requested to set aside the election tribunal order and declare that the petitioner is eligible for contesting the by-polls of UC-8 Ibrahim Haidery. He also sought an injunction restraining the by-polls till the disposal of the petition.

A high court division bench, headed by Acting Chief Justice Irfan Saadat Khan, issued notices to the ECP and others and called their comments on November 2.