In a blow to the former ruling Pakistan People’s Party, an election tribunal on Monday rejected former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf’s nomination papers for NA-51 constituency in Gojar Khan. The PPP secretary general has won two previous elections from this constituency.
Ashraf had filed an appeal with the tribunal against the rejection of his nominations by the returning officer (RO).
The tribunal, comprising Justice Rauf Ahmad Sheikh and Justice Mamoon Rashid of the Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi Bench, heard the arguments from both the sides and reserved its judgement earlier in the day.
Returning Officer Khalid Arshad had rejected Ashraf’s papers after Raja Irfan Aziz, a relative of the candidate’s political rival Raja Javaid Ikhlas, complained that the former prime minister had misused discretionary funds in his constituency.
Senator Farooq Naek appeared before the two-member tribunal as counsel for the petitioner, seeking an order to overturn the verdict of the RO.
Naek contended that the nomination papers of his client were wrongly rejected as he never misused discretionary powers to allocate development funds for his constituency. He said Ashraf has the legal and constitutional right to contest the general elections, adding that an appeal would be filed in the Supreme Court against the tribunal’s decision.