Senate polls: Election Tribunal upholds Pervaiz Rashid's disqualification by ECP

Dunya News

PML-N candidate said that he was ready to pay due amount to eliminate the objections raised by ECP

LAHORE (Dunya News) – Lahore High Court’s (LHC) Election Tribunal on Tuesday has upheld the decision of returning officer and disqualified Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Pervaiz Rashid from participating in the Senate polls.

While announcing the verdict, LHC judge justice Shahid Waheed has rejected the appeal of PML-N leader.

During the proceedings, Pervaiz Rashid said that he was ready to pay due amount to eliminate the objections raised by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Previously, Election Tribunal had approved petition of Pervaiz Rashid for hearing. The PML-N leader’s lawyer Azam Nazir Tarar adopted the stance that returning officer had rejected his client’s nomination papers for Senate elections.

Pervaiz Rashid was issued photocopy notices from Punjab House to pay dues. However, my client tried to pay them but the concerned authorities didn’t accept it, he told.

Responding to the counsel’s argument, Justice Shahid Waheed asked why the dues were not paid on time over which, the lawyer said that as per Supreme Court’s (SC) decisions, this money can be paid at any time.

Azam Nazir further told that Pervaiz Rashid wanted to pay the dues when he checked out from the Punjab House.

Subsequently, the tribunal issued notice to ECP and directed the Punjab House representative to attend tomorrow’s hearing with all the relevant record.

Earlier, LHC registrar office had raised objection over the appeal of Pervaiz Rashid filed against the decision of rejecting his nomination papers for the Senate elections and ordered him to attach ECP’s verified documents with his appeal.

On February 18, 2021, ECP had rejected nomination papers of Pervaiz Rashid submitted for the Senate polls.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), while recording objections over the candidacy of Pervaiz Rashid, told that the PML-N leader had filed his nomination papers for general seat, however, he had also mentioned about the technocrat seat in his affidavit.

PML-N candidate had provided misleading statements in his details. He was found guilty in a case pertaining to leaking the secrets of the national institutions, the PTI representative stated.

It is to be mentioned here that a total of 170 candidates had filed their nomination papers in the ECP for the elections on 48 seats in the upper house of the Parliament. 29 candidates from Punjab, 39 from Sindh, 51 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 41 from Balochistan and 10 from the federal capital Islamabad had submitted their details.