A petition filed against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman and former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s call to contest for elections on 9 National Assembly (NA) seats simultaneously in Lahore High court (LHC) on Wednesday.
Petition Filed in Lahore High Court:
The hearing of that petition will hear by LHC Justice Shahid Jamil Khan on Thursday (August 11).
Advocate Mian Asif Mehmood filed a petition, named the Federation of Pakistan through the Cabinet Division secretary, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar through the law secretary and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) through Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, and Former Prime Minister Imran as answerable within the case.
Last week, the ECP declared that by-elections on 9 National Assembly seats will be held on September 25, vacated after PTI lawmakers’ resignation.
Imran had declared that he will contest for all the seats by himself, immediately after the Election Commission of Pakistan announced the date of the nine National Assembly seat elections.
The petitioner Mian Asif Mehmood, who is the president of the Amun Taraqqi Party Punjab, filed the plea requesting the court to restrain the PTI’s chairman from contesting the by-polls within the massive interest of the country.
The petition stated that within the 2018 general elections, a lot of candidates oppose elections for multiple seats.
The petition also stated that Imran Khan oppose general elections 2018 on 5 seats at the same time and won all five seats, and later he vacated four seats and consequently, the ECP had to re-poll all four seats.
The petition filed told that it had become a lacuna to contest election on multiple seats by the candidates within the general elections, highlighting that the problem required to be self-addressed because it was an awfully clear case of political exploitation.
The petition said that equally, Aleem Khan oppose the election on over seven seats, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari opposes the same elections on 3 seats and lots of additional opposition in a very similar manner.
It discerned that this point was much questionable and also the prices of a single person contesting multiple seats were important in by-poll-related expenses that may be needed if a candidate secured several seats.
The petitioner submitted that the value of 1 individual contesting on multiple seats was important. He said that if over one seat is won by a candidate, by-polls can be commanded after the general elections.
He additionally added that it’s a waste of the ECP’s resources both throughout the general elections and after the general elections, even by-polls, cost money, need security, and divert native administrations from their core duties.
He said in his petition that conducting elections could be a massive task and it’s an extremely pricey activity too as recently the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) demanded a budget of Rs50 billion to conduct the 2023 general elections.
The petition additionally said that just about up to Rs200 million are calculable expenses for elections of one body and this burden is placed on the general public pecuniary resource throughout the by-elections on vacant seats just the general elections in the form of taxes.
The petition additionally argued that Imran was already a member of the National Assembly and his declared bid for election to the same house was gross illegality and irregularity left by the assembly, whereby he can resign from all 9 seats eventually if he wins all the seats and this way public pecuniary resources can have to be compelled to face a large loss.
The petitioner was aforementioned that he was filing the case on the premise of public importance/interest to urge the anomaly within the law removed for the larger interest of the state, adding that it required to be detected within the supreme interest of justice for the interest of the general public at massive.
Furthermore, he requested the LHC to direct Imran to not contest an election of the parliament before the submission and acceptance of his resignation as an MNA.
The petition additionally required a direction to be issued to the relevant respondents to amend the law therefore the eligibility criteria will be held to regulate the parliamentarians to contest the election.
