F.P. Report
MULTAN: With four more days to go for deciding appeals of candidates against rejections or acceptance of nomination papers by the returning officers, appellate tribunals on Saturday decided more appeals and many candidates were allowed to contest elections.
An election tribunal in Multan rejected appeal of PTI leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi to contest election from NA 150, 151 and two provincial assembly constituencies PP 218, 219. The former foreign minister had filed appeal against RO’s decision. Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar announced the decision. However, Zain Qureshi and Mehr Bano Qureshi were allowed to vie for polls from PP 219.
PTI’s Asad Qaiser was granted permission to run for election from NA 19 and PK 50 while Taimur Jhagra was cleared to take part in election from three constituencies. Fawad Chaudhry’s wife Hiba Chaudhry was declared ineligible by a tribunal to contest election for provincial assembly seat.
Election tribunal accepted appeals of PTI’s Subhan Sahil and Amjad Afridi and allowed them to contest election from NA 243 and 242, respectively. PTI’s Malik Niaz Ahmad Jhakar was granted permission to vie for election from NA 182 (Layyah). Similarly, PTI candidate from PS 113 Hasnain Chohan was also cleared by election tribunal to run election. The Pakistan Peoples Party candidate Rauf Ahmad’s appeal against RO decision to reject nomination paper was adopted by the election tribunal. Independent candidates Rafiya Hassan (PS 126), Jamaluddin, Deedar Ali’s appeal were also accepted by tribunals and they were allowed to contest elections scheduled for Feb 8. PTI candidate from Haala, Makhdoom Fazal was given go ahead by the tribunal to vie for election. A tribunal, while declaring RO’s decision null and void, allowed Fiza Zeeshan to contest election from NA-237. Appellate Tribunal Judge Adnanul Karim Memon expressed his anger over the ability of returning officers. The judge while passing remarks said,” Are the candidates being deliberately barred from contesting polls.
