SHC seeks civil case record on plea for disqualification of PTI’s presidential candidate

The Sindh High Court on Friday directed its office to place the record and proceedings of a 1977 civil suit in the high court on a petition seeking the disqualification of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf candidate for the president’s office, Dr Arif ur Rehman Alvi.

Petitioner Azmat Rehan, who had lost the decades-long civil proceedings with regard to the ownership of a salt firm against Alvia Tabligh Trust, submitted that Alvi, a co-plaintiff in the case, was not qualified to be elected president of Pakistan as he had filed fake documents in the 1977 civil case. He alleged that Alvi obtained judgments in his favour by way of fraud and tampering with the documents, and the high court had also directed the civil court to decide the application with regard to the tampering with the documents.

He submitted that the application was still pending before the civil court despite the high court’s division bench directive to decide the application within one month in August 2014. A division bench headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar directed the office to place the record and proceedings of the 1977 Alvia trust case and adjourned the hearing till September 25.

The PTI had confirmed on August 18 the nomination of party leader Dr Arif Alvi for the post of president. The nomination had been confirmed by party spokesperson Fawad Chaudhry on Twitter.

The Election Commission of Pakistan had announced two days before his nomination that the presidential election would take place on September 4. Under Article 41 (4) of the Constitution of Pakistan, the election to the office of the president is to be held not earlier than 30 days before expiry of the term of the president in office.