Imran out of electoral field, Sharifs get clean chit to contest Pakistan’s Feb.8 polls

Tariq Butt, Correspondent

Former prime minister Imran Khan has been ousted from the electoral field and the members of the Sharif family led by the ex-premier and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML_N) supremo have been given a clean chit to contest the Feb.8 general elections.

An election tribunal has upheld the rejection of Imran’s nomination papers for Lahore and Mianwali seats, resulting in his exclusion from the elections.

Justice Tariq Nadeem, presiding over the election tribunal at the Lahore High Court, dismissed the appeal pertaining to the rejection of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan's papers for NA-122.

The election appellate tribunals cleared the members of the Sharif family to contest the upcoming polls after dismissing appeals filed by the PTI challenging the acceptance of the nomination papers for Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif, and Maryam Nawaz.

The election tribunals, comprising of 12 judges of the Lahore High Court (LHC), adjudicated appeals filed by candidates challenging the decisions of the respective Returning Officers (ROs) regarding the acceptance or rejection of nomination papers.

The appeals against the Sharif family centred around the acceptance of nomination papers for Nawaz Sharif from NA-130, Shahbaz Sharif from NA-132, and Maryam Nawaz from NA-119.

The petitioner had objected to how the papers of Nawaz Sharif could be accepted, considering his lifetime disqualification. He raised various questions before the election tribunal, seeking clarification on whether the nomination papers of an individual disqualified for a lifetime by the Supreme Court of Pakistan could be accepted.

The appellant had also contested the RO decision to accept the nomination papers of Shahbaz Sharif, asserting that he had been identified as the mastermind behind the alleged criminal attack on the Supreme Court on Nov.28, 1997.

Furthermore, the appellant contested the RO decision to accept the nomination papers of Maryam Nawaz, arguing that she did not meet the criteria of being "Sadiq and Ameen" (truthful and trustworthy).

However, the tribunals dismissed the petitions against the Returning Officers' decisions to accept these nominations.

The other tribunal upheld the RO decision against Imran Khan, which stated that the candidate's endorser did not belong to the constituency. Similarly, Judge Chaudhry Abdul Aziz dismissed Imran's appeal for NA-89 Mianwali, supporting the RO's objections.

The tribunal noted that Imran's conviction in the Toshakhana case makes him ineligible to contest the election, emphasising that the length of the sentence is irrelevant till a sentence is in the field.