PESHAWAR: Two election appellate tribunals here on Sunday accepted 23 appeals and set aside decisions of returning officers concerned rejecting nomination papers of different candidates including that of former federal minister Ali Mohammad Khan for the Feb 8 polls.

The single-member tribunals consisting of judges of the Peshawar High Court including Justice Shakeel Ahmad and Justice Wiqar Ahmad, respectively, restored candidatures of some of the leaders of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf including former senator Aurangzeb Khan, his brother Abdul Shahid, ex-MPA Zahir Shah Toru, former Nowshera district nazim Daud Khan Khattak, etc.

The tribunals took up for hearing 33 appeals out of which 23 were accepted, two were rejected whereas hearing was adjourned in eight of the cases.

During course of hearing Justice Shakeel Ahmad observed that the Election Commission of Pakistan should have imparted proper training to the returning officers before submission of nomination papers.

PTI’s Ali Mohammad, Zahir Shah, Daud Khattak, Aurangzeb Khan declared eligible

The bench observed that in scores of the constituencies the RO had raised undue objections and rejected nomination papers thus creating problems for the candidates.

The tribunal further remarked that despite issuance of notices none of the ROs turned up in any of the cases.

In the appeal of PTI’s central leader Ali Mohammad Khan, advocate Ali Zaman appeared before the tribunal of Justice Wiqar Ahmad and stated that the RO had rejected papers of his client for NA-23 Mardan.

He stated that the reason given by the RO for rejection of the papers was that Ali Mohammad had mentioned himself as a PTI candidate but had not attached the party’s ticket with his nomination papers.

He argued that a candidate could provide the party’s nomination ticket till Jan 12 as the date for allotment of symbols was Jan 13.

The ECP’s lawyer Mohsin Kamran Siddique also endorsed his point of view and stated that production of party’s ticket with the nomination papers was not mandatory.

The tribunal also accepted appeal of PTI’s provincial vice president Zahir Shah Toru, whose papers were rejected by the RO for provincial assembly constituency PK-57, Mardan.

The appellants’ counsel Lajbar Khan Khalil stated that his client’s papers were rejected on different grounds including presence of his name in FIRs registered against May 9 protests in Mardan and recommendation of the Mardan district intelligence coordination committee (DICC) to place his name in Schedule Four of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

He argued that nomination papers can’t be rejected merely because of mentioning of his name in an FIR.

He contended that the recommendation of the DICC to place name of a candidate in Schedule Four could also not be a justification for rejecting nomination papers.

Referring to Article 62 and 62 of the Constitution, he argued that the said articles provides qualifications and disqualifications for a candidate, which didn’t include that of placement of name of a person in Schedule Four.

The tribunal also restored candidature of former Nowshera district nazim Daud Khattak for NA- 34 Nowshera and PK-87 Nowshera and set aside the orders of the ROs.

Similarly, the tribunal of Justice Shakeel Ahmad accepted appeals of former senator Aurangzeb Khan, whose papers were rejected by the ROs for NA-36 Orakzai and PK-94 Orakzai, and that of his brother Abdul Shahid, that too PK-94 Orakzai.

Barrister Syed Mudassir Amir and Adnan Aman appeared for the two appellants and contended that the respective ROs had not given any valid reasons for disqualifying them from contesting the Feb 8 polls.

Following proceedings before the tribunal, the PTI’s provincial vice president Zahir Shah Toru told media persons that the outcome of the decisions of the tribunals had clearly proved that the ROs had rejected most of the nomination papers of the PTI leaders on flimsy grounds.

He predicted that his party would be having a clean sweep in the general elections.

He said certain elements had now been trying to postpone the polls, but the masses and the Supreme Court of Pakistan would foil their designs.

Mr Toru said that the PTI Parliamentarian leaders Pervez Khattak and Mahmood Khan would face crushing defeat during polls.

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2024