IHC rejects petition seeking deferral of presidential election

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday dismissed a constitutional petition seeking to postpone the presidential election scheduled to be held on Sept 4. 

Justice Athar Minallah of the high court rejected the petition for being non maintainable.

When the judge asked the petitioner to explain as to what did he see illegal in the process of the election to the office of President of Pakistan, he couldn’t give a satisfactory answer, forcing the judge to dismiss his petition during the initial hearing.

The petitioner contended that the presidential elections are being conducted hastily, therefore, the polls be postponed in order to conduct them later following the legal procedure.

All arrangements have been finalized for the election scheduled for tomorrow.

The ruling party candidate, Dr Arif Alvi, Pakistan Peoples Party’s Aitzaz Ahsan and Maulana Fazlur Rehaman, fielded by other opposition parties, have been declared to be the final presidential candidates for September 4 polls.

They had filed their nomination papers for the presidential poll earlier this week which were approved after scrutiny.

The opposition led by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) failed to field a consensus candidate for president as the PPP nominated Aitzaz Ahsan and other opposition parties fielded Maulana Fazlur Rehman as their candidate.

With a divided opposition, which is otherwise formidable in numbers, the PTI candidate, Dr. Arif Alvi, is assured an easy win as the opposition votes will be divided between two candidates, PPP’s Aitzaz Ahsan and JUI-F chief Fazlur Rahman.