An election tribunal of the Lahore High Court on Thursday issued notices to both sides on an appeal moved by PTI leader Jamshed Cheema and his wife Musarrat Jamshed Cheema that challenged rejection of their nomination papers by the Election Commission of Pakistan.
A tribunal headed by Justice Shahid Jameel passed the orders and sought replies from both sides.
Advocate Qazi Mubeen, the counsel for the appellants, appeared before the tribunal and submitted that the details of the proposer were submitted on the basis of the voter’s registration and it was not the fault of the appellants.
He said that amendment in the nomination papers was allowed under the law.
After hearing the initial arguments of the appellants, the election tribunal issued notices to the Election Commission of Pakistan and sought replies.
While talking to reporters, PTI leader Jamshed Cheema said that PTI could not be ignored as it was a big party and it should be allowed to contest the election.
Earlier, a returning officer rejected nomination papers of Jamshed Cheema and his wife, Musarrat Jamshed Cheema, as their proposer was from outside their constituency. Both Cheema and his wife had engaged Bilal Hussain as their proposer for the nomination papers in order to contest the by-election of NA-133.
During the hearing of petition against their proposer, PML-N’s Naseer Bhutta had argued that Bilal Hussain – the proposer of Jamshed Iqbal Cheema and his wife Musarrat Jamshed Cheema – was a resident of NA-130, while the constituency of the election was NA-133. He said that the proposer should belong to the election constituency under Section 60 of the Election Act.
Cheema, however, challenged the RO’s decision before the election tribunal through his counsel and claimed that the proposer belonged to the same constituency. He said that the RO rejected their nomination papers by ignoring the facts.
He asked the tribunal to set aside the decision of the ECP and allow them to contest by-election of NA-133.
