Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Ameer Bhatti on Saturday constituted a new division bench to hear and decide the appeals of PTI leader Jamshed Cheema and his wife against rejection of nomination papers for the upcoming by-election of NA-133.
Justice Shujaat Ali Khan and Justice Faisal Zaman will be the new members of the bench who will take up the matter next week, commencing from November 15.
The new bench was formed after Justice Shahid Waheed recused himself from the bench for personal reasons.
Jamshed Iqbal Cheema and his wife challenged before the Lahore High Court a decision of an election tribunal dismissing their appeal against the decision of the returning officer (RO) regarding rejection of their nomination papers.
Advocate Qazi Mubeen had filed the appeals as counsel for the appellants. The counsel prayed the court to set aside the rejection of their papers and allow them to contest the by-election scheduled for Dec 5.
On Nov 5, an election tribunal comprising LHC Justice Shahid Jameel turned down the appeals after hearing arguments from the lawyers representing the petitioners, the PML-N and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
It may be mentioned here that the returning officers had turned down the nomination papers of Cheema and his wife as both had mentioned proposers and seconders of their nomination papers from outside the constituency concerned. The RO had held that proposers and seconders should be from the same constituency.
