Former finance minister Ishaq Dar has stated that since the enactment of 18th Amendment, there has been no prohibition under the Constitution or law that a person who has been declared absconder can't contest Senate election. On March 3, the former finance minister won a Senate seat as a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) backed independent candidate.
An appellate election tribunal of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on 17th Feb had granted permission to former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar for contesting Senate election, setting aside an order of the returning officer (RO) who had rejected his nomination papers. Pakistan Peoples Party candidate Muhammad Nawazish Ali Pirzada on March 9, 2018 filed an appeal in the apex court requesting to suspend the LHC order.
Dar on Saturday filed reply of an appeal challenging his Senate election through Salman Aslam Butt under Article 185(3) of Constitution. He prayed that the appeal is not maintainable and be dismissed for being violating the Constitution and law. He stated that the pre-conditions laid down in the Constitution and law need to be met and satisfied.
He said Article 63(1) of Constitution was amended by the Legal Framework Order, 2002, to include sub-clause (p), which state: "He has been convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for having absconded by having absconded by a competent court under any law for the time being in force." The amendment to the Constitution was preserved by the 17th Amendment. However, the 18th Amendment removed this disqualification by repealing the 17th Amendment and declared "the LFO to have been made without lawful authority and to be of no legal effect. Therefore the disqualification under Article 63(1)(p) is no longer valid."
He contended that appellant does not have locus stand to contest the technocrat, assail the technocrat appellate order, file the writ petition and assail the high court judgment, since the appellant neither objected to the nomination papers during the scrutiny proceedings before the Election Commission of Pakistan nor did he file any appeal against the returning officer's order.