The election appellate tribunal of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday accepted the appeal of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Dr Yasmin Rashid and allowed her to contest the upcoming elections against Nawaz Sharif from NA-130 Lahore.
Following today’s deadline for filing appeals against the decisions of the returning officers, election tribunals across the country are hearing pleas against rejections.
The tribunal overturned the decision of the RO and gave the green light to Rashid to contest from the constituency against the PML-N supremo.
Appeals of Azam Khan Niazi and PTI’s Mian Mehmoodur Rashid from Lahore were also accepted, hence clearing their path to contest in upcoming general polls.
In Islamabad, the election tribunal of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) approved the nomination papers of Nayab Ali, a transgender and human rights activist, and declared her eligible.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PLM-N) former member of provincial assembly (MPA) Shaukat Bhatti was cleared by the tribunal to contest the election. Bhatti, who was disqualified by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 2018 in a fake degree case, was given the go-ahead by Election Tribunal Judge Justice Mirza Waqas Rauf to contest polls from PP-9 Gujar Khan.
The election tribunals will today announce decisions on all the appeals filed against earlier decisions by ROs. The chief justices of the high courts have constituted larger benches and will receive appeals against plea rejection by the election tribunal from today onwards.
However, any final appeal against the decision of the larger bench will then be entertained in the Supreme Court.
The returning officers will release the new list of candidates tomorrow, January 11.
