Tribunal allows Asadullah Bhutto, Qadir Patel to contest polls

The election tribunal of the Sindh High Court on Monday allowed Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal leader Asadullah Bhutto to contest the upcoming election in National Assembly constituency NA-242 Karachi.

Bhutto had challenged the rejection of his nomination paper by the returning officer on grounds of a loan default in an agriculture company.

His counsel submitted that the petitioner had no direct nexus with the company and his name had been cleared by the State Bank of Pakistan. He requested the court to set aside the returning officer’s order and allowed him to contest the election on July 25. The election tribunal also allowed the petition of Pakistan Peoples Party leader Abdul Qadir Patel, and directed the returning officer to accept his nomination paper from NA-248.

Patel’s nomination form was rejected for not declaring his properties in an affidavit submitted to the returning officer. The election tribunal however rejected a petition against the acceptance of the nomination paper of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamat leader Maulana Aurangzeb Farooqi from provincial assembly constituency PS-91.

The petitioner, Rashid Rizvi, submitted that the respondent belonged to a banned sectarian outfit and was involved in a number of cases; therefore, his nomination papers should be rejected.

Fehmida Mirza’s plea

The Sindh High Court directed the election commission and others to file comments on a petition against the rejection of the nomination paper of former National Assembly and Grand Democratic Alliance leader Dr Fehmida Mirza for an election to a reserved seat for women in the National Assembly.

Dr Mirza, a former Pakistan Peoples Party leader who is now contesting the polls from the platform of the Grand Democratic Alliance, submitted in the petition that the returning officer rejected her nomination paper filed for a reserved seat for women in the National Assembly on the grounds that the SBP 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 the objectors.

She submitted that the election tribunal and a full bench of the SHC had also given judgments in her favour when a similar controversy was raised in the previous election. On Saturday, an election tribunal of the Sindh High Court had dismissed a petition against the approval of the nomination form of Syed Murad Ali Shah, a PPP candidate and the former provincial chief minister, for the provincial assembly constituency PS-80 in Jamshoro.

Sindh United Party chief Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah had challenged Murad’s nomination form claiming that the PPP candidate concealed his dual nationality, properties and agricultural land and filed a false affidavit about his income.