The Supreme Court provided significant relief to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Friday, granting permission to five of its candidates to participate in the upcoming February 8 elections.
The Supreme Court approved appeals from PTI candidates Umer Aslam, Major (retd) Tahir Sadiq, Sanam Javaid Khan, and Shukat Basra, who had challenged the decisions of returning officers rejecting their nomination papers in various constituencies.
PTI’s president, currently in Adiala Jail, filed a petition under Article 185(3) of the Constitution for leave to appeal against the Lahore High Court’s judgment on January 13, 2024.
A three-member bench of the Supreme Court, comprising Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, and Justice Athar Minallah, heard Elahi’s plea.
“We don’t want a delay in elections,”
Siddiqui told the bench
He implored the court to grant permission to his client to contest the upcoming elections in Gujarat.
Justice Minallah observed that voters should not be deprived of their right to vote.
He said a returning officer is supposed to facilitate and not obstruct the election process.
“Strangely, all this is happening to only one political party,” Justice Minallah remarked.
Justice Shah said elections call for the inclusion of people and not exclusion.
“Article 17 says that no one can be barred from contesting an election without valid reasons,” he said.
The SC judge said the Constitution allows enfranchisement and not disenfranchising the voters via elections.
After hearing the arguments, the apex court declared the RO’s decision to reject Elahi’s nomination papers from PP-32 invalid and allowed him to contest polls from the Gujarat provincial assembly seat.
PTI candidates Tahir Sadiq and Omer Aslam Awan were allowed by the apex court to contest elections from NA- 49 (Attock) and NA-87 (Khushab) constituencies, respectively.
Sanam has been allowed to contest polls from NA-119, NA-120, and PP-125 while Basra was cleared to fight elections from NA-163 (Bahawalnagar).