The Lahore High Court’s (LHC) appellate tribunal on Thursday issued notices on petitions challenging the returning officer’s (RO) decision to reject PTI leader Jamshed Iqbal Cheema and his wife’s nomination papers for by-election to NA-133 Lahore scheduled for Dec 5.
After a preliminary hearing, the tribunal issued notices to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and others to file their comments on the petitions and adjourned the case until Friday (today).
Last week, the returning officer (RO) rejected the nomination papers of Jamshed Iqbal Cheema and his wife Musarrat (his covering candidate) on the ground that the proposers and seconders for the two are not residents of the constituency as required under the relevant election laws.
During the hearing today, Cheema’s lawyer stated before the tribunal that the votes of the proposers and seconders were transferred from NA-133 to some other constituency.
“Where did the proposers and seconders cast their vote in the previous election?” the court asked the counsel, to which the latter replied that their votes were registered in this constituency at that time, but it has now been bifurcated.
He said they verified information about their votes through SMS service. “It’s not our fault. We filed the nomination papers on the basis of information we were provided,” he argued.
