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Tuesday March 19, 2024

PTI candidate moves appellate tribunal against own party aspirant

By Akhtar Amin
June 23, 2018

PESHAWAR: An interesting situation emerged Friday when an aspirant of party ticket filed an appeal against the acceptance of nomination papers of his party candidate for PK-73, Peshawar.

Dilroz Khan, who remained the right hand of former chief minister Pervez Khattak and chairman of the CM’s Complaint Cell, filed an appeal with the Appellate Tribunal against the decision of the returning officer for accepting nomination papers of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate Taimur Saleem Khan for PK-73. He had applied for the ticket of the PTI to contest the provincial assembly constituency PK-73.

The sources said that Dilroz Khan had submitted nomination papers after assurance from party leadership that he would be the party candidate, but PTI Chairman Imran Khan later decided to give the ticket to Taimur Saleem.

In the appeal, filed through a lawyer Aminur Rehman Yousafzai, Dilroz Khan claimed that the respondent, Taimur Saleem, PTI candidate for PK-73 had violated the Article 63 (1) of the Constitution. He argued that Taimur Saleem had concealed facts from the returning officer so he was no more Sadiq and Ameen.

The appellant pointed out that the respondent concealed facts at the time of filing nomination papers. He said the candidate in his affidavit didn’t mention Iqama or his residential permit during his nine years stay in the United Arab Emirates.

He added that in ‘Column E’ of the affidavit, certain investments were admitted by the respondent candidate without mentioning the amount of investment in Form-B.

The appellant said the income tax returns filed under Section 114 (1) of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 for 2015 would reflect that Rs291 has been paid as a tax and in 2016 he paid income tax of Rs338, while in the 2017, he paid no income tax, but interestingly admitted that Rs2,50,44,660 as profit/insertion in his wealth at the end till June 30, 2017.

“Column no H is in a glaring contradiction to Column 2b of form B that he was working as a partner until December 2017 in the multi-national company which was Dubai-based, while in the relevant column of affidavit, he mentioned his profession as a politician, which is sufficient to debar him from contesting the election being hit by Article 62 and 63 of the Constitution,” the appellant claimed in the appeal.

He said that the respondent PTI candidate deliberately concealed the requisite information from the returning officer at the time of filing nomination papers. He said the respondent candidate had declared his wealth statement in three different currencies, which was also in violation of the election law.

The appellant prayed the Appellate Tribunal to declare the nomination papers invalid.

Separately, up to 10 candidates filed appeals with the Appellate Tribunal against the decisions of returning officers for rejecting their nomination papers for the general seats of national and provincial assemblies.

As per the notified schedule, the appeals against decisions of returning officers (ROs) were submitted to the tribunal by June 22. The tribunal would start hearing the appeals from June 25 to June 27.

Nawabzada Arsala Khan, a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz candidate for NA-21 Mardan, filed an appeal against the decision of the returning officer for declaring his nomination papers invalid due to his dual nationality.

A PTI candidate for PK-46 Swabi, Muhammad Ali Tarakai, filed an appeal against the decision of the RO, whose nomination papers were rejected for being a defaulter of Rs2 million.

Saifullah, a candidate from PK-66, filed an appeal in the tribunal against the RO’s decision as his nomination papers were rejected for being a defaulter of the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited and the absence of the thumb impression on the affidavit.

Gul Sana Din, a candidate from PK-83 Hangu, filed the appeal in the tribunal, in which he challenged the RO’s decision for rejecting his nomination papers due to the absence of proposer and seconder during scrutiny of the nomination papers.

Another candidate for PK-71 FR Kohat, Irfanullah, filed an appeal against the RO’s decision for rejecting his nomination papers as he was not a registered voter of the constituency before the merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Daud Khan Khattak, a candidate for PK-65, submitted his appeal with the tribunal against the RO’s decision as his nomination papers were rejected for being a defaulter of Rs40 million of a citizen Malik Shamsur Rehman, a voter of the constituency.

The voter had filed a complaint with the RO that the candidate had acquired a land worth Rs40 million for Khushal Garden, a housing society in the district, and did not pay the amount to him. Hamidul Haq, a candidate for PK-74, filed an appeal against the decision of the RO in the tribunal.

The RO had rejected his nomination papers for submission of nomination papers of another constituency instead of his own constituency.

Shakil Afridi, a candidate for NA-43, filed appeal against the RO decision. The RO had rejected his nomination papers for being a defaulter.

Muhammad Sajid Fahim from PK-63 and Abdur Rahim from PK-74 filed appeals against the decision of the returning officer to declare their nomination papers as invalid.