The Islamabad High Court on Tuesday dismissed the Pakistan Peoples Party candidate's plea to suspend Election Commission of Pakistan's notification regarding postponement of election in NA-60, Rawalpindi. A single bench of IHC comprising Justice Aamer Farooq turned the petition of PPP candidate Mukhtar Abbas after hearing the arguments of the ECP Director (Legal).
The Director (Legal) submitted that the ballot papers which were printed also carry the name of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz candidate Hanif Abbasi, but he (Abbasi) had been disqualified as a result of life-time imprisonment by the Court of Control of Narcotics Substances (CNS) in ephedrine case.
The election on the old ballot paper can't be held and it is not possible to print new ballot papers and transport them to the constituency in one day, he added. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz candidate Hanif Abbasi was disqualified after the verdict of Court of Control of Narcotics Substances (CNS) Rawalpindi on July 21, 2018 in misuse of controlled chemical ephedrine. Abbasi was contesting election against Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rashid from NA-60, Rawalpindi.
The PML-N did not have a covering candidate in the constituency. The Lahore High Court on July 23 had dismissed Chairman Awami Muslim League Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed's petition against the ECP in the same matter. The PPP candidate moved the petition through his counsel Niazullah Khan Niazi and cited chief election commissioner (CEC) and secretary ECP as respondents in this matter.
He stated in the petition that being a political worker of the party, he worked hard with responsibility for the welfare of inhabitants of his constituency and has been carrying his campaign for the last five years and developed his reputation within the area and after qualifying as candidate, the petitioner carried his day to day and door to door election campaign
and there is every hope of success in the general elections. The petitioner has contended that the notification is illegal, unlawful, ineffective, arbitrary and has been passed in fanciful manners, thus is liable to be set aside being void ab initio.
"There is no mandate to the ECP under Section 4 of the Election Act, 2017 read with Article 218(3) of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973 which empowers the ECP to postpone an election on the basis of punishment to a criminal but in the instant case, the punishment of the said criminal has been given to the petitioner and other contesting candidates," maintained Mukhtar.
He added that the ECP issued the notification totally against the law as Section 4 of the Election Act, 2017 does not confer any power or mandate upon the ECP to postpone an election on the basis of punishment to a criminal candidate of any constituency while the said section has totally interpreted against its spirit as mentioned in Section 4 of Election Act, 2017.
Therefore, he prayed to the court that the said notification may be declared illegal, unlawful, arbitrary, fanciful and against the provisions of constitutions of law and the Section 4 of the Election Act 2017.
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