The Lahore High Court on Wednesday upheld the election Appellate Tribunal’s decision that dismissed the appeals of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf founder Imran Khan and other party leaders regarding the rejection of nomination papers by the returning officers for general elections.
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.
Wednesday 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.