LAHORE: A Lahore High Court full bench on Monday issued notices to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on two petitions of imprisoned PTI founding chairman Imran Khan challenging the decisions of the rejection of his nomination papers from NA-122, Lahore, and NA-89, Mianwali.

The bench headed by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi directed a counsel for the ECP to submit replies to the petitions by Tuesday (today).

The petitions asked the high court to set aside the decisions of the returning officers (ROs) and the appellate tribunals of rejecting the nomination papers of the petitioner from both constituencies of the national assembly.

Khan’s nomination papers were rejected primarily on the grounds of being convicted in the Toshakhana case. His nomination papers from NA-122 were also dismissed on the grounds of the proposer not being the voter of the constituency.

The appellate tribunals also upheld the decisions of the respective ROs with an observation that the conviction and sentence were two different terms as conviction pertained to the guilty verdict and sentence stands for the rigours following conviction.

The tribunals noted that the conviction meant a guilty verdict pronounced by a court in reference to the delinquency attributed to an accused, whereas the sentence denoted the quantum of punishment.

A tribunal observed that the decision of ECP regarding disqualification of the petitioner was still in the field and had not been set aside from the competent forum.

On the point of the proposer not being the voter of the constituency, the tribunal said the revised delimitation report was issued by the ECP prior to the submission of nomination papers.

It observed that nobody including the appellant and his proposer challenged the revised final delimitation report.

IO summoned: A Lahore High Court division bench on Monday summoned the investigating officer along with the record of seven May 9 cases against jailed PTI founding chairman Imran Khan.

The bench, headed by Justice Aalia Neelum, was hearing a petition of the former prime minister challenging the dismissal of his pre-arrest bail in the cases after his arrest and conviction in Toshakhana case.

The judge asked Barrister Salman Safdar, the counsel for the former prime minister, whether the petitioner had been arrested in the cases wherein he sought restoration of his pre-arrest bail.

The counsel said the police had not provided him any details regarding the arrest of the petitioner.

The bench adjourned the hearing for Tuesday (today) and directed the investigating officer to submit record of the cases against the petitioner.

An anti-terrorism court on Aug 11, 2023 dismissed the pre-arrest bail of Mr Khan in seven cases of the May 9 riots for his non appearance.

The former prime minister pleaded in the petition that the trial court dismissed the bail on technical grounds on the basis of the circumstances not in his control as he had been imprisoned in Toshakhana case.

He asked the court to set aside the trial court’s order and direct it to decide the bail petition on merits.

The cases include attacks on the Lahore corps commander’s residence, Askari Tower in Gulberg, Shadman police station, the party office of PML-N in Model Town and torching of a container at Kalma Chowk.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2024