The Lahore High Court on Thursday suspended victory notifications of Chairman and Vice Chairman from Nishtar Town UC-139 and sought detailed reply from the election commission. A voter of the constituency, Zameer Khan, through his counsel argued that nomination papers of both Chairman Muhammad Amjad and Vice Chairman Muhammad Arshad were neither approved nor rejected by the returning officer concerned.

He said the nomination papers could not be processed without the remarks of Returning Officer (RO). He asked the court to declare the respondents Chairman and Vice Chairman disqualified for being elected on the basis of bogus nomination papers. A law officer of the Election Commission of Pakistan also confirmed before the court that the nomination papers of the respondents did not bear any remarks of the RO.

However, he said the matter could be taken up by the election commission or the election tribunal. The law officer argued that the High Court had no jurisdiction to hear the election dispute. The court, however, suspended the victory notifications of the respondents and sought reply from the ECP.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2017