LAHORE: An election tribunal comprising a judge of the Lahore High Court on Friday dismissed the appeals of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf candidates Jamshed Cheema and his wife, Musarrat Cheema, against rejection of their nomination papers by the returning officer (RO) for NA-133 bypoll.

Justice Shahid Jamil Khan, the tribunal, announced the decision after hearing arguments of the lawyers from both sides — the appellants and respondent PML-N candidate Shaista Pervaiz Malik.

Advocate Mubeenuddin Qazi, on behalf of Cheema, argued that the RO rejected nomination papers contrary to facts. He said the RO took a ground that the proposer of the appellants was not from the same constituency, which was not factually correct.

He said the proposer was a resident of the constituency but the defect was in the record of the Election Commission due to a misplaced census circle. He stated that all family members of the proposer were also residents of the same address and registered voters of NA-133.

He pointed out that the defect was curable as it was not on the part of the appellants. The counsel said the RO failed to appreciate that even the Supreme Court in a similar matter, allowed a candidate to contest the election to protect him from being disenfranchised.

PML-N’s counsel Barrister Ahmad Qayum argued that the election tribunal had no jurisdiction to interpret the already interpreted laws.

The tribunal dismissed the appeals and upheld the RO decision.

Talking to the media, Cheema announced challenging the decision of the tribunal before the Lahore High Court invoking its writ jurisdiction under article 199 of the Constitution.

He reiterated that the PML-N should not hide behind the technicalities and let the voters decide which party was big and popular.

Lahore’s constituency had fallen vacant due to the death of PML-N MNA Pervaiz Malik.

The ECP announced a by-poll to fill the vacancy on Dec 5.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2021