ISLAMABAD: Dejected at the rejection of his nomination papers for the Senate election by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Pervaiz Rashid on Friday challenged the ECP’s decision in the Lahore High Court (LHC).
In the petition, filed through Advocate Azam Nazir Tarar, the veteran PML-N leader argued that he was ready to deposit Rs9.5 million for the purpose, and for that, he had approached Punjab House administration, but the latter did not provide bank details.
He also said that he even talked to the returning officer (RO), but he did not give any details either. “The government is deliberately not receiving the money,” Rashid alleged in the petition.
He prayed to the court to order the ECP to receive the amount from him so that his nomination papers could be accepted. “Please declare me eligible to contest the Senate elections,” the PML-N leader implored.
A day earlier, the ECP had rejected the nomination of PML-N leader Pervaiz Rashid for Senate.
On Wednesday, a petition submitted by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MPA Zainab Umair to the governing body had contended that Rashid was a defaulter of the Punjab House, Islamabad, and owed in excess of Rs7 million to the Punjab government.
Later in the day, a returning officer had informed Rashid his nomination would be accepted only after he cleared the dues.
However, when he had failed to make the payment within a time frame, the returning officer on Thursday had accepted the objection to his nomination.
In December 2018, the Punjab government had released a list of 76 politicians, bureaucrats and others for defaulting on the payment for their stay and meals at Punjab House during the tenure of the PML-N government.
Per the list, Rashid owed Rs7.05 million, including Rs0.69 million charges for his stay between January and August 2011 and Rs6.4 million from June 2013 to May 2018.
His daughter, Poonam Rashid, also owed Rs2.7 million.
In this regard, while speaking to the media in Lahore on Thursday, the former minister had claimed the move was an “engineered attempt” to keep him from contesting Senate elections.
“A so-called demand was created about which I was not informed. When I tried to make the payment, all government officials disappeared from their seats and offices,” he had alleged.
“They are not giving their bank account number nor are they taking cash,” he had said.
He had claimed Prime Minister Imran Khan had directed the concerned officials to not accept the payment so that he [Rashid] could be stopped from contesting the polls.
Rashid had maintained that it was his legal right to appeal the ECP’s decision. “You can close the doors of parliament for me but you cannot silence my voice,” he said.
Candidates for the Senate elections, 2021 have started challenging the RO’s decisions from Friday as the third phase of the elections schedule got underway.
The candidates would file their appeals in Appellate Tribunals on Friday as well as on Saturday.
The tribunals are to decide the fate of these appeals maximum by February 23 following which they would issue the final list of the candidates on February 24.
The candidates would be able to withdraw their candidature by February 25.
A total of 141 candidates are running for 48 Senate seats.
