SHC issues notices to ECP, returning officer on Dr Fehmida Mirza’s plea

The Sindh High Court on Friday issued notices to the returning officer and the Election Commission of Pakistan on a petition against the rejection of a nomination paper of former National Assembly speaker and Grand Democratic Alliance leader Dr Fehmida Mirza for a reserved seat for women in the National Assembly.

Dr Mirza, a former Pakistan Peoples Party leader who intends to contest the election on the platform of the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), submitted in the petition that the returning officer rejected her nomination form filed for a reserved seat for women in the National Assembly on the grounds that the State Bank of Pakistan had showed Mirza Sugar Mill as a loan defaulter in which she was a minor shareholder.

She submitted that the returning officer had accepted her nomination papers for provincial assembly constituencies PS-73 and PS-74 and National Assembly constituency NA-230 overruling loan objections raised by objectors.

She further stated that the election tribunal and a full bench of the SHC had also given judgments in her favour during the previous elections when a similar controversy surfaced. A division bench headed by Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi issued notices to the ECP and the returning officer and called their comments on June 25.

Sattar, Maqbool’s forms

Petitions have been filed in the Sindh High Court, challenging the nomination papers of Muttahida Quami Movement-Pakistan leaders Farooq Sattar and Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui for being allegedly involved in criminal cases.

Syed Iqbal Kazmi submitted in the petition that MQM-Pakistan Bahadurabad and PIB Colony conveners Siddiqui and Sattar, who were contesting polls in National Assembly constituencies NA-254 and NA-247 were absconders from courts in different criminal cases registered at police stations in Karachi.

He said the two were absconders in terrorism-related cases registered by the police after a speech by MQM founder Altaf Hussain at the Karachi Press Club on August 22, 2016, against the country and the armed forces of the country and attacks on media houses.

He requested the court to reject their nomination papers as they had submitted false statements to the ECP about their pending criminal cases.