Top court has decided to hear deceased Pervez Musharraf plea relating to rejection of nomination papers for National Assembly seat of Kasur in 2013 general elections during the week commencing from Monday July 17 as three-member bench comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ayesha A. Malik and Justice Hassan Azhar Rizvi will take up the matter on July 20.
Former president Pervez Musharraf passed away five months ago who had invoked Supreme Court jurisdiction challenging rejection of his nomination papers for a National Assembly seat of Kasur in the 2013 general elections.
According to cause list, C.A.982/2016 (Election-National Assembly / Rejection of Nomination Papers) (D.B.), Syed Pervez Musharaf v. Appellate Tribunal for General Election 2013, Peshawar High Court, Peshawar & others has been fixed on serial No.4 for hearing on Thursday July 20 whereas Mir Aurangzeb, AOR (Enrl#199) (Qta) Malik Qamar Afzal, ASC (Enrl#2419) (Rwp) Attorney General for Pakistan R – Notice names have been mentioned in the cause list.
Reports disclosed that during 2013, the nomination papers of former president and retired general Pervez Musharraf were rejected for the National Assembly constituency NA-139, Kasur, by the returning officer of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) after his opponent Advocate Javed Kasuri objected the former president’s nomination papers on six different grounds.
One of the objections stated that the candidate did not meet the criteria as enunciated under Article 62 and 63 of the Constitution which deal with qualifications and disqualifications of a candidate to become a member of the National Assembly.
Consequently, the returning officer had declared the former army chief ineligible to contest the elections from NA-139 seat. Then the ECP had debarred him from the polls in Kasur in view of different court cases filed against him for violating the country’s Constitution several times. Mr Musharraf had approached the Supreme Court and challenged the rejection of his nomination papers by RO in the Supreme Court.