Musharraf challenges his disqualification in Supreme Court

ISLAMABAD: Former president General (R) Pervez Musharraf on Thursday challenged in the Supreme Court (SC), the verdict of Sindh High Court (SHC), disqualifying him under Article 62 of the Constitution for contesting the general elections held in May 2013.
He prayed to the apex court that the impugned orders and judgments were bad in law and on fact and the same were illegal, unlawful, unconstitutional, without and in excess of jurisdiction, void ab initio and of no legal effect, and were liable to be annulled.
The former president filed an appeal under Article 185 (3) of the Constitution, making Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) through Provincial Election Commission, Karachi, Election Tribunal for Sindh, Karachi, Returning Officer NA-250, Karachi-South, and Federation of Pakistan through Secretary Establishment as respondents.
The former president questioned as to whether learned Returning Officer, Election Tribunal and the High Court were correct in rejecting the nomination papers of the petitioner as a candidate in the May 2013 General Elections.
In order to participate in the general elections of May 11, 2013, Pervez Musharraf had submitted nomination papers to contest elections from the constituency of NA-250, Karachi (South).The Returning Officer for NA-250 Karachi South however, at the time of scrutiny, rejected the nomination papers of the petitioner vide order dated April 7, 2013 on the grounds that Pervez Musharraf held the 1973 Constitution in abeyance, suspending it on November 3, 2007; and detained/removed a vast majority of judges of the superior judiciary.
It was also held that the petitioner’s nomination papers were liable to be rejected under Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution read with section 14 of the Representation of the People Act, 1976 (hereafter: “the 1976 Act”).
Later on, the full bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) comprising Maqbool Baqar, Abdul Rasool Memon and Syed Muhammad Farooq Shah also dismissed Musharraf’s petition on April 18, 2013.The former president prayed to the apex court to grant leave to appeal.