LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) Appellate Tribunal has allowed former Finance Minister (FM) Ishaq Dar to contest Senate election. The court has also rejected the appeal pleas filed against the acceptance of nomination papers of Saadia Abbasi sister of Prime Minister (PM) Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and senator Nuzhat Sadiq. LHC appellate tribunal headed by Justice Amin ud Din took up Ishaq Dar petition for hearing Saturday. Advocate Suleman Butt appeared on behalf of Ishaq Dar taking the plea all the legal formalities were met by his client for contesting Senate polls. Returning Officer (RO) rejected his nomination papers against the facts and his client was not given chance to defend him. He prayed the court to set aside RO decision of rejecting his client nomination papers and Ishaq Dar be allowed to contest polls. The counsel for Provincial Election Commission said showing one bank account by Ishaq Dar for contesting polls on two seats is based on malafide intent. The nomination papers of a candidate are rejected if the verified copy of identity card is not provided by him. The court allowed Ishaq Dar to contest the polls after hearing the arguments from both sides. It is pertinent to mention here that Ishaq Dar had filed nomination papers separately against two seats of Senate including general and Technocrats. Returning officer had rejected Ishaq Dar nomination papers and latter had resorted to Lahore High Court against rejection of his papers. The appeal pleas filed against acceptance of nomination papers of Saadia Abbasi, sister of PM and senator Nuzhat Sadiq also came up for hearing before the court. The court while rejecting the appeal pleas against the filing of nomination papers, allowed both of the leaders to contest the election. According to Dar’s lawyer, his papers were rejected without reason, and requested that the tribunal nullify the returning officer’s rejection of Dar’s nomination papers. Hearing the lawyer’s arguments in the case, the tribunal upturned the ECP’s decision and accepted Dar’s nomination papers. On Monday, the election body had noted that Dar was a court absconder in a corruption and money-laundering reference pending against him in an accountability court, subsequently rejecting his nomination papers. The appeal on Dar’s behalf, filed on Thursday with the tribunal, stated that the returning officer rejected his papers even though all the legal requirements were fulfilled.
67-year-old Dar, who is currently in London undergoing medical treatment, was declared an absconder by an accountability court in December last year in a corruption reference after he repeatedly failed to join the trial. He is being probed on charges of amassing assets beyond his known sources of income.