An appellate bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday turned down the appeal of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Pervaiz Rashid against rejection of his nomination for the Senate election.
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I and Raza Rumi host a candid conversation with Amber Shamsi and Zaigham Khan.https://t.co/UTNioASixn— Murtaza Solangi (@murtazasolangi) February 23, 2021
Earlier, the election commission and the Punjab House submitted their records in the appellate tribunal. In his appeal filed through Advocate Azam Nazir Tarar, veteran PML-N leader had argued that he was ready to deposit the amount to address the objection of the election commission. “We pleaded twice to the Returning Officer that we are ready to pay the arrears,” the counsel of veteran PML-N leader said.
“Payment cheques for the money were also produced before the RO and told him that no one was ready to receive the arrears”, the counsel said. “The Controller of Punjab House has been in court, we are still ready to pay the arrears,” the lawyer told the court.
“Pervaiz Rashid was not serious to pay the arrears and only telling stories that they had tried to pay the outstanding amount,” the election commission counsel argued.
“No one communicated to the Punjab House about payment of the outstanding amount,” Registrar Punjab House said. “I was unwell and was not present in the office that day but the office was open and no one contacted the staff,” the Registrar further said.
On the other hand, an Election Tribunal of the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday dismissed an appeal challenging the acceptance of the nomination papers of PTI leader Faisal Vawda for the forthcoming Senate elections. The tribunal allowed the water resources minister to contest the Senate polls.
The election tribunal on Monday has sought a reply from Federal Minister for Water Resources Faisal Vawda after his Senate nomination was challenged. Advocate Qadir Khan Mandokhail filed a petition in the election tribunal. He has challenged the returning officer’s decision to approve Vawda’s nomination papers.
The election tribunal has served notices to the respondents and summoned them for arguments tomorrow.
Mandokhail said that Vawda hid the truth about his US citizenship, adding that he doesn’t deserve to hold any public post. The returning officer did not listen to any reservations against Vawda’s appointment, he claimed. The returning officer’s actions were illegal and unconstitutional.
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Notably, a petition was filed in the high court in January seeking Vawda’s disqualification for allegedly concealing his US nationality at the time of filing his nomination papers to contest the 2018 general elections. Taking up the petition, the court had asked the minister to submit a response. However, the minister failed to comply with the order.