LAHORE: An election tribunal comprising a Lahore High Court judge on Thursday issued notices to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on appeals of PTl candidates from NA-133 Jamshed Cheema and his wife, Musarrat Cheema, against rejection of their nomination papers by the returning officer.
The appellants through Advocate Mubeenuddin Qazi submitted that the returning officer (RO) rejected their papers contrary to facts. They said the RO took a ground that the proposers of the appellants were not from the same constituency, which was not factually correct.
They submitted that the proposers were very much residents of the appellants` constituency but the defect was in the record of the ECP due to a misplaced census circle.
They asked the tribunal to set aside the decision of the RO and allow them to contest the by-poII to be held on Dec 5.
Justice Shahid Jamil Khan, the tribunal, issued notices to the respondents and sought their replies on Friday (today).
Lawyers of PML-N candidate Shaista Pervaiz Malik, who objected to the nomination papers of the PTl candidates, were present in the court.
In a brief conversation with the media, Mr Cheema dismissed a claim of the opposition that he himself wanted to stay out of the bypoll on technical grounds. He said if this was the case, the PML-N leadership should not challenge his nomination papers and let the voters decide which party was popular.
