LAHORE: A full bench of the Lahore High Court Monday sought replies from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) by Tuesday (Jan 16) on two petitions of former Chairman PTI Imran Khan challenging the rejection of his nomination papers from NA-122, Lahore and NA-89, Mianwali.

The petitioner through his counsel contended the returning officer and the Appellate Tribunal relied on the arguments of the Toshakhana’s sentence.

He said that punishment in Toshakhana was given on the basis of moral turpitude. There is no interpretation of moral turpitude in judicial decisions, the counsel added.

He, therefore, asked the court to set aside the decisions of the returning officers (ROs) and the appellate tribunals of rejecting his nomination papers.

The court after hearing the petitioner’s counsel at length issued notices to the respondent ECP and sought its replies.

The nomination papers of Imran Khan were rejected primarily on the grounds of being convicted in the Toshakhana case. His nomination papers from NA-122 were also dismissed on the grounds of the proposer not being the voter of the same constituency.

The appellate tribunals also upheld the decisions of the respective ROs with an observation that the decision of ECP regarding disqualification of the petitioner was still in the field and had not been set aside from the competent forum.

On the point of the proposer not being the voter of the same constituency, the tribunal said the revised delimitation report was issued by the ECP prior to the submission of nomination papers.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024