A divisional bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday ordered Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to submit reply into a petition seeking a ban on contesting the election on more than one constituencies' by August 13. The division bench headed by Justice Khadim Hussain Sheikh also showed displeasure over ECP for not submitting the comments on the petition despite its orders issued in the last hearing.
Petitioner Faiq Jagirani moved SHC against the candidates, who are contesting the next general election on more than one assembly seats. Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan and Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) President Mian Shahbaz Sharif have been made respondents along with many others in the petition.
Bilawal Bhutto, Imran Khan and Shahbaz Sharif are contesting next general elections on more than one assembly seats with the commonality among the three is that all of them are in the run for national assembly seat in Karachi. Petitioner's counsel told the court that ECP didn't submit the reply in the court in the last three course of hearings by not implementing its order and submitted that precious national resources are wasted by allowing the candidates to run for more than one assembly seats.
Petitioner submitted that a candidate has to retain one assembly seat after being elected on more than one seats in elections by vacating all the others. Country is burdened with massive foreign and domestic debt, but the heads of national political parties are contesting on more than assembly seats without considering the loss of national resources.
Petitioner prayed the court to impose a ban on the candidates in view of wastage of national resources. The bench observed that it is a national issue and said that court would give its verdict after going through all the aspects of the issue. It again ordered ECP to submit its reply against the petition by August 13.
Meanwhile, a divisional bench of SHC issued notices to Sindh Government, IG Sindh, Dr Zaulfiqar Mirza, a candidate for assembly seat in Badin and others in a petition, which sought to restrict the police taking action against rival candidates of Dr Zaulfiqar Mirza.
A divisional bench of SHC headed by Justice Abdul Rasool Memon took up the petition, which was filed by Gul Mohammad Jhakhrani and Amir Bux Umrani that Sindh Home Department issued letter to them for allegedly posing threats to Dr Zaulfiqar Mirza and his son Hasnain Mirza.
Petitioners submitted that allegations are baseless against them and said that these allegations have been levelled against them because of their political rivalry to Dr Zaulfiqar Mirza. They prayed that police should be stopped to harass them after Home Department issued letter to them.
Court restrained Police to take action against the petitioner and ordered that department should refrain from taking any illegal action against them. Bench also ordered the respondents to submit their replies in the court by August 09 after issuing notices to them.
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