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ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) decided on Tuesday to provide a copy of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan’s nomination forms for the Elections-2013 to Dr Arsalan Iftikhar, the son of former chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.
Dr Arsalan has recently relinquished the post of vice chairman of Balochistan’s Board of Investment after Imran Khan’s allegation that the post was given to him as a reward for favours his father had doled out to the PML-N during the polls.
The ECP decision came a day after an application seeking the documents was moved by Dr Arsalan. He intends to seek proceedings for disqualification of Imran Khan from retaining his National Assembly seat for alleged concealment of facts about his children in the nomination forms.
Papers of all politicians who contested Elections-2013 placed on the commission’s website to ensure transparency
An ECP official said nomination forms of all politicians who had contested the elections were public documents and anyone could get a copy of them.
The forms have been placed on the commission’s website to ensure transparency and invite objections to provision of false information or concealment of facts, which are corrupt practices.
About the accusation levelled by Dr Arsalan that Imran Khan had concealed that he was the father of a girl, the official said the ECP would take up the matter when it came to it through the speaker of the National Assembly.
Know more: Arsalan Iftikhar lashes out at Imran
But, another official said it was not for the first time that the issue had been raised. The commission had rejected two identical references filed against Imran Khan in 2007 by the then minister for parliamentary affairs, Dr Sher Afgan Niazi, and the parliamentary leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement in the National Assembly, Dr Farooq Sattar.
The ECP had held that a sitting lawmaker could be unseated only on any of the grounds listed under Article 63 of the Constitution. And that the references were not maintainable because they were based on the qualification under Article 62.
In the references, Dr Sher Afgan and Dr Farooq Sattar had pointed out that the Los Angeles Superior Court had declared on July 30, 1997 that Imran Khan was the father of a daughter of Anna Luise alias Sita White, born out of wedlock on June 18, 1992.
Imran Khan had hailed the ECP decision as victory of justice and said the references had no legal basis and the only motive behind them was to exert pressure on him to withdraw a case he had filed against MQM chief Altaf Hussain in London. He had claimed to be in possession of concrete evidence to prove Altaf Hussain’s link to incidents of terrorism in Karachi. Imran Khan had argued that the references were based on an ex-parte decision of the US court which had no legal value.
“If they want to rely on ex-parte judgments, what about the decision of the Canadian Supreme Court which had declared the MQM a terrorist organisation,” he said.
Published in Dawn, July 9th, 2014
