Imran cleared to contest from Mianwali's NA-95

LAHORE: An appellate tribunal of the Lahore High Court on Monday announced its verdict allowing Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan to fight elections from Mianwali’s NA-95 constituency.

Earlier today, appellate tribunal judge Justice Faisal Zaman Khan reserved the verdict on the appeal filed by PTI chief against the rejection of his candidacy for Mianwali’s national assembly seat.

Following the decision of returning officer (RO) to reject his nomination papers for NA-95, Imran requested the election tribunal to quash the decision of the RO.

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Announcing its decision, the tribunal set aside the RO’s objections and declared Imran eligible to partake in polls from Mianwali’s NA-95 constituency.

Imran’s counsel Babar Awan argued, during the hearing, that his client has declared all his assets, adding,“The RO rejected Imran’s nomination papers on technical grounds.”

On Saturday, the appellate tribunal issued a notice to the returning officer and other parties after Imran’s nomination papers were rejected from NA-95 Mianwali constituency.

PTI chairman Imran Khan has filed nomination papers for a total of five seats: NA-35 Bannu, NA-53 Islamabad-II, NA-95 Mianwali-I, NA-131 Lahore-IX and NA-243 Karachi. After facing objections on his nomination papers submitted for the constituencies of Lahore, Karachi and Mianwali, Khan has been now given a green signal by to Election Commission of Pakistan to contest on all seats except NA-53. The decision of election tribunal on Khan’s eligibility to vie for NA-53 Bannu is awaiting.