LAHORE: An appellate election tribunal of the Lahore High Court on Saturday allowed appeal moved by former finance minister Ishaq Dar challenging rejection of his nomination papers for Senate Election.

Ishaq Dar, who is currently in London undergoing medical treatment was declared an absconder by an accountability court in  corruption case in December last year, now could contest Senate Elections to be held on March 3 rd.

Ishaq Dar moved his appeal through special attorney Advocate Naseer Ahmad Bhutta while Advocate Salman Aslam appeared on his behalf before the tribunal.  

The appellant said that the returning officer rejected his nomination papers without thoroughly checking the facts. He said the returning officer was bound to do proper security of the nomination papers required under the Representation of Peoples Act, 1976 but he failed to do so.  He alleged that legal formalities were also not followed by the RO while deciding his nomination papers.

He asked the court to set aside decision of returning officer and allow him to contest election of the senate.

A Returning Officer had on Feb 12 rejected nomination papers of Ishaq Dar on petition moved by PTI’s Opposition leader in Punjab Assembly Mian Mahmoodur Rasheed.  The RO rejected his papers on the basis of discrepancy found in his signatures.

Earlier, in his petition before the RO, Mr Rasheed had submitted that Dar had been facing corruption charges and had also declared an absconder by an anti-terrorism court. The petitioner had also questioned signature of Dar on his nomination papers.   He had asked the RO to reject nomination papers of Ishaq Dar.

Mr Rasheed, however, did not show his reaction to decision of the Election Tribunal despite repeated efforts by this scribe.

Advocate Azhar Siddique, a lawyer who had also questioned process of scrutiny for Senate Election, however, vowed to challenge permission allowed to Ishaq Dar to contest the upper house election.

“How an absconder can contest Senate Elections,” said Azhar Siddique adding that “Dar is facing corruption cases and is accused of money laundering besides the scrutiny process which has errors and cannot stop defaulters from becoming members of the Upper House,” .

Azhar said that he would file petition in the Lahore High Court on Monday to challenge decision of Election Tribunal regarding nomination papers of Ishaq Dar.

Azhar also said that ECP also did not share information about the contesting candidates on its websites despite the clear order of the Supreme Court.  He said he approached ECP to provide information about tax defaulters and those having dual nationality but he was not provided the required the information.

“They ask me to know the status of dual nationals on website of interior ministry,” said Azhar surprising that “How ECP can say that I should consult IM’s website?” . It was responsibility of the ECP under the law to provide information about contesting candidates, he added.