LHC rejects Elahi’s plea, allows wife to contest polls

LAHORE: In another setback to the Imran Khan-led party, the Lahore High Court (LHC) has rejected Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) President Chaudhry Parvez Elahi’s appeal to overturn the rejection of his nomination papers ahead of the February 8 general elections.

The verdict was given by a three-member bench headed by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi on Saturday.

The high court upheld the verdicts given by the RO and appellate tribunal regarding the rejection of Elahi’s nomination papers from NA-64 and PP-32.

However, the ex-Punjab chief minister’s wife Qaisara Elahi was granted permission to contest the polls from two constituencies after the acceptance of her nomination papers from NA-64 and PP-32.

Additionally, the LHC full bench also rejected Moonis Elahi’s appeal against the rejection of his nominations from NA-64, NA-69, PP-32, and PP-34.

On January 8, an election tribunal rejected Elahi and his wife's appeals against the rejection of their nomination papers from NA-59 and PP-23, upholding RO’s decision of declaring them "disqualified" for concealing asset details and other information.

A series of objections had been raised against them, which included the concealing of assets, non-disclosure of shares in different companies, Qaisara’s foreign visit, non-compliance with the rule to open separate bank accounts for expenditures in both constituencies, technical mistakes in documents and submitting documents without verification from the oath commission.

The senior PTI leader was initially arrested on June 1 in a Rs70 million graft case related to the embezzlement of development funds allocated for the Gujrat district and has been behind bars ever since.

He was released several times in between, only to be re-arrested immediately in different cases, including a money laundering case and allegations of illegal appointments in the Punjab Assembly.