ECP permission for fresh candidates: Supreme Court to hear appeal against NA-123 by-polls

The Supreme Court on Tuesday admitted for regular hearing, an appeal against the by-elections of NA-123 (Lahore-VI) wherein it has been stated that Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) should not have allowed fresh candidates to participate in the elections.
A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Ghulam Rabbani and Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday issued notice to Attorney General to assist the court on the subject. The court issued this direction while hearing a plea of Chaudhry Mohammad Ilyas Gujjar, a candidate from the above said constituency.
The seat fell vacant after Makhdoom Javed Hashmi of PML-N, elected on two other seats vacated it under Article 223 of the Constitution. Later on, Malik Pervez of PML-N had emerged as a candidate in the by-elections. The bench in its short order also allowed parties concerned to file their replies and adjourned hearing till date in office.
At the outset of proceedings, Chief Justice observed that so far no judicial verdict had been delivered over the issue. On the last date of hearing, Ahmed Raza Qasuri, counsel for the petitioner, had argued that the ECP could change the polling dates without disturbing the seven-stage election procedure.
He had stated that the election process in the constituency should have commenced from June 1, 2008, but it had been stayed due to litigation, leaving no room for acceptance of fresh nomination papers.
He had contended that no order about filing of fresh nomination papers was passed by the apex Court for the constituency NA-55 Rawalpindi, which should have been adopted for the elections of this constituency as well. He further contended that the date of polling for elections on NA-123 between him and other petitioners whose nomination papers had been scrutinised and accepted in terms of the apex court's judgement dated May 26, 2009, should have been announced.
Earlier, only six candidates from the constituency were in the run and they had been allotted election symbols, including PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, Qazi Kamran Gujjar, Mohammad Sajid Latif, Noor Elahi, Dr Amber Shahzada and the petitioner, Chaudhry Mohammad Ilyas Gujjar, he added.