ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday binned a petition challenging the nomination of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Saifullah Abro for Senate.
Last week, the Sindh High Court (SHC) allowed Abro to contest the March 3 elections, setting aside the decision of its election tribunal disqualifying the hopeful on the technocrat seat. However, the ruling was challenged in the apex court on Monday.
The petitioner maintained that Abro did not meet the criteria to contest the Senate election on a technocrat seat that required minimum 16 years of education and 20 years of experience.
The apex court while upholding the decision of the high court directed the applicant to contact the relevant forum after the elections.
The PTI has faced several challenges to its proposed candidates for the Senate elections. Last week, disgruntled PTI leaders from rural Sindh had approached Governor Imran Ismail, also a PTI stalwart, to express their reservations.
In a letter, the PTI officials had said they were “extremely disappointed with the entire process” of the selection of candidates for the polls and demanded the party’s high command cancel the nomination of Abro and Minister for Water Resources Faisal Vawda and award tickets to “party loyalists”.
Separately, eight appeals were filed against the decisions of the returning officers over acceptance and rejection of the Senate hopefuls from Sindh.
Two appeals were filed against Abro, while an appeal was filed against the acceptance of Vawda’s nomination papers on a general seat.
