ISLAMABAD: Five months after the death of former president Pervez Musharraf, the Supreme Court has fixed Monday (July 17) for hearing his plea he had filed against the rejection of his nomination papers for a National Assembly seat of Kasur in the 2013 general elections.

A three-judge Supreme Court bench consisting of Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ayesha A. Malik and Justice Hassan Azhar Rizvi will take up the matter.

In 2013, the nomination papers of former president and retired general Pervez Musharraf were rejected for the National Assembly constituency NA-139, Kasur, by the returning officer of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) after his opponent Advocate Javed Kasuri objected the former president’s nomination papers on six different grounds.

One of the objections stated that the candidate did not meet the criteria as enunciated under Article 62 and 63 of the Constitution which deal with qualifications and disqualifications of a candidate to become a member of the National Assembly.

Consequently, the returning officer had declared the former army chief ineligible to contest the elections from NA-139 seat.

Then the ECP had debarred him from the polls in Kasur in view of different court cases filed against him for violating the country’s Constitu­tion several times.

Mr Musharraf had approached the Supreme Court and challenged the rejection of his nomination papers by RO in the Supreme Court.

Published in Dawn, July 15th, 2023