Senior PML-N leader and former finance minister Ishaq Dar has written a letter to Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani, expressing his willingness to take his oath as a member of Senate “virtually” from the UK or through the “mechanism provided under Article 255 (2) of the Constitution” as he would not be able to come to Pakistan due to a “prolonged illness and ongoing medical treatment”.
In the letter, Dar stated that he was elected as a senator on a technocrat seat in the polls held on March 3, 2018. His victory was notified by the Election Commission of Pakistan shortly after.
Prior to the Senate polls, Dar’s nomination had been challenged in the Lahore High Court and was subsequently dismissed. Following his election, an appeal against the LHC decision was filed in the Supreme Court by rival candidate, PTI’s Nawazish Ali Pirzada.
The apex court suspended the ECP notification declaring the PML-N leader’s victory on May 8, 2018, for his failure to appear before the court despite the issuance of repeated summons.
However, in December last year, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal for non-prosecution, thus vacating its 2018 stay against the issuance of any notification in favour of the former finance minister by the ECP.
