PESHAWAR: The Appellate Tribunal on Wednesday cleared Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan in the Sita White case and allowed him to contest election from National Assembly constituency NA-35 Bannu.
Justice Abdul Shakoor dismissed an election appeal filed for declaring him disqualified for contesting from NA-35 Bannu over keeping intimate relations with US national Sita White without entering into wedlock.
The judge observed that the proof provided for disqualification of Imran Khan was not enough and therefore the election objection petition stood dismissed.
Younas Khan Wazir and Malik Salman Ghaznavi appeared for Imran Khan in the appeal. They submitted that the allegations against PTI chief did not come under Article 62 and 63 of the Constitution.
They pleaded that the objection appeal against the acceptance of his nomination papers be dismissed.
Malik Naeemullah Khan Wazir, a candidate of former Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry’s Justice and Democratic Party, had filed the election appeal against the decision of returning officer to accept the PTI chief’s nomination papers.
He alleged that Imran Khan fathered a daughter Tyrian Khan from Sita White without getting married and did not mention it in the nomination papers.
He claimed all the relevant record was available to prove the charge.
The candidate claimed the DNA report about the case had also been published by the reputed news channels and newspapers.
Naeemullah Wazir claimed that Imran Khan did not fulfil the criteria laid down under Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution as he wasn’t ‘Sadiq’ (truthful) and ‘Ameen’ (trustworthy) for hiding the information of his alleged illegitimate child and, therefore, his nomination papers should be rejected.
Meanwhile,, an Appellate Tribunal headed by Justice Syed Afsar Shah heard 51 election appeals. Four candidates were declared disqualified for general election while 45 others were allowed to contest the election.
Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) Chairman Aftab Sherpao, former provincial minister and PPP candidate, Ziaullah Afridi, PTI leader Noor Alam Khan, PML-N’s Nawabzada Arsala Khan and PTI candidate Muhammad Ali Tarakai were among the 45 candidates who were allowed to contest the election to be held on July 25.
The tribunal maintained the Returning Officer’s decision regarding disqualification of four candidates including ANP’s Arshad Bashir Khattak for National Assembly constituency NA-32 Kohat over his dual nationality, Sajid Fahim because he was
a government contractor, Muhammad Darvesh and Taj Nawaz Khattak from Hangu district.
However, the National Telecommunication Company (NTC) withdrew its appeals against two candidates, including District Peshawar Nazim Muhammad Asim Khan as he did not submit his nomination papers for contesting the election.
The district nazim appeared before the tribunal and submitted that he had obtained nomination papers, but did not submit them.
The NTC withdraw its appeal against the district nazim after his statement that he had not submitted nomination papers.
The NTC had claimed in the appeal that the district nazim was defaulter as there was Rs18,000 dues against him.
The high court judges were part of the six tribunals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, eight in Punjab, four in Sindh and two in Balochistan.
As per the election schedule, the revised list of candidates will be published today (June 28) whereas the last date for withdrawal of candidature will be June 29.
On June 30, allocation of electoral symbols will be completed and the final list of contesting candidates will be published.