PTI founder among other PTI leaders out of election race

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday upheld the election Appellate Tribunal’s decision that dismissed the appeals of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan and other party leaders regarding the rejection of nomination papers by the returning officers (ROs) for upcoming general elections, ARY News reported.

The former prime minister had submitted his nomination papers from NA-122 Lahore and NA-89 Mianwali for the general elections scheduled for Feb 8, both of which were rejected by the respective ROs. Subsequently, he contested these decisions before the election appellate tribunals, where his appeals were also dismissed.

In response, PTI founder Imran Khan filed a writ petition with the larger LHC bench against the tribunal’s decision. Similarly, 60 other PTI leaders, had submitted petitions in the LHC against the rejection of their nomination papers.

Today was the last day to file petitions against the decisions of the election tribunals.

A three-member LHC bench – headed by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi – announced the reserved verdict on more than 60 petitions, including Imran Khan, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Pervaiz Elahi and others.

Dismissing the appeals, the three-member LHC bench upheld the decision to reject the nomination papers. Shah Mahmood had challenged the rejection of his nomination from NA-150, NA-151 and PP-218.

Furthermore, Fawad Chaudhry’s application against rejection of nomination papers from NA-60 and NA-61 was also dismissed. The court also rejected the petition against the rejection of nomination papers of his wife, Hiba Fawad.

The Lahore High Court also upheld the decision to reject Sanam Javed’s nomination papers from NA-119 and NA-120. Sanam Javed had also challenged the move of rejecting her nomination papers from PP-150.

Earlier, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa-led three-member bench announced the verdict, dealing a huge blow to Imran Khan-led PTI’s hopes of retaining its symbol.

As a result, the PTI candidates will now be contesting the elections independently with different electoral symbols while the party no longer has the right to reserved seats for women and minorities.