The Lahore High Court on Thursday allowed Information Secretary Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Fawad Chaudhry to contest the election from NA-67, Jhelum. The tribunal comprising Justice Ibadur Rehman Lodhi had disqualified Fawad Chaudhry invoking the Article 62(1) (f) of the Constitution. Chaudhry challenged the tribunal's decision before the high court and prayed to restore the decision of the returning officer accepting his nomination papers.
Earlier, appellant's counsel Azam Nazir Tarar argued that the appellate tribunal acted beyond its jurisdiction bypassing the impugned decision. The returning officer after scrutiny of the documents had accepted the nomination papers of the petitioner, he added.
He further said the respondent Syed Fakhar Haider had approached the appellate tribunal, who dismissed his appeal with an observation that the respondent was not a competent person to file the appeal.
He pointed out that the respondent filed second appeal on same grounds and the tribunal entertaining rejected the nomination papers of the appellant. Tarar argued that the tribunal was not functioning as a constitutional court and the declaration issued by it was without any lawful authority. He further argued that the tribunal issued the impugned declaration without affording an opportunity of hearing to the petitioner.
He asked the bench to set aside the impugned decision of the tribunal and reinstate the order of the returning officer. The bench observed that the points raised by the petitioner's counsel required consideration and suspended the impugned decision of the tribunal and sought reply from the ECP by July 3.