Mehtab Pirzada

RAWALPINDI: An election tribunal has rejected former Punjab chief minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) President Chaudhry Parvez Elahi and his wife Qaisara Elahi’s appeals against the rejection of their nomination papers from two constituencies.

Justice Chaudhry Abdul Aziz conducted the hearing on Elahi and his wife’s appeals, challenging the decision of the returning officer (RO) to reject their nomination papers from NA-59 and PP-23, declaring them “disqualified” for contesting general elections.

The election commission’s Law Officer Falak Sher and Assistant Director Law Zulqarnain Haider appeared in the hearing.

The tribunal upheld RO’s decision regarding their disqualification after finding objections to the nomination papers correct.

The nomination papers of the senior politician and his wife had been rejected by the returning officer during the scrutiny process.

A series of objections were raised against them, which included the concealing of assets, non-disclosure of shares in different companies, Qaisara’s foreign visit, non-compliance with the rule to open separate bank accounts for expenditures in both constituencies, technical mistakes in documents and submitting documents without verification from the oath commission.

The decision can still be challenged in a superior court.

The senior PTI leader was initially arrested on June 1 in a Rs70 million graft case related to the embezzlement of development funds allocated for the Gujrat district, and has been behind bars ever since.

He was released several times in between, only to be re-arrested immediately in different cases, including a money laundering case and allegations of illegal appointments in the Punjab Assembly.