LAHORE: The appeals of PTI leader Jamshed Iqbal Cheema and his wife Mussarat Jamshed Cheema — who challenged the decision of a returning officer against their nomination papers for NA-133 by-election — were rejected by an Election Appellate Tribunal on Friday.
The Election Appellate Tribunal, led by Justice Shahid Jameel Khan of the Lahore High Court (LHC), heard the appeals of the PTI candidates and announced the verdict.
Lawyers representing the returning officers and other respondents appeared before the court and submitted their arguments, while Mobinuddin Qazi and Rana Shakoor represented Cheema and his wife.
Cheema and his wife had challenged the decision of the Returning Officer who had rejected their nomination papers on the grounds that the proposer did not belong to the NA-133 constituency of Lahore.
The Election Appellate Tribunal upheld the decision of the returning officer, maintaining that their proposer had votes in NA-130, so they cannot become a proposer of NA-133 candidates.
It is pertinent to mention here that PML-N leader Naseer Bhutta had challenged the nomination papers of Cheema and his wife on the same grounds. He had asked the Returning Officer to reject their nomination papers for violating the law.
After hearing the arguments of both sides, the Returning Officer had rejected the nomination papers.
Cheema and his wife had challenged the rejection in the Appellate Tribunal two days ago.
Their counsels insisted that Jamshed Cheema’s nomination papers were in order as per the law and were rejected by the Returning Officer only on the grounds that his proposer was not from the NA-133 constituency.
They insisted the proposer actually belonged to the same constituency as his identity card and domicile carry an address from the area, and the local union council chairman also verified this.
However, the Election Appellate Tribunal, after hearing arguments from both sides, rejected the papers.
