On Thursday, an election tribunal granted permission for Sardar Akhtar Jan Mengal, the leader of the BNP, to participate in the upcoming elections.
This decision followed Mengal’s appeal to the appellate tribunal, contesting the rejection of his nomination papers for the National Assembly constituency NA-264 (Quetta-I) by the Returning Officer.
Justice Hashim Kakar, presiding over the tribunal, presided over the hearing of the case. The rejection of Akhtar Mengal’s nomination papers by the Returning Officer was based on issues related to his Aqama (work permit) from Dubai.
The Balochistan election tribunal, overseen by Balochistan High Court judges Justice Muhammad Hashim Khan Kakar and Justice Amir Nawaz Rana, also granted permission to several other candidates to participate in the upcoming general elections. Initially rejected by returning officers, candidates such as Abdul Khaliq Hazara (Chairman of Hazara Democratic Party), Tahir Mehmood Khan (PPP), Ahmed Nawaz Baloch (BNP), Mehmood Khan Sherani, Mufti Gulab (JUI-F), Zakir Hussain Kasi, and Muhammad Hussain were permitted to contest elections following the review and decisions of their appeals.
IHC Reinstates 10-Year Disqualification For Convicts Under NAB Law
Meanwhile, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) reinstated the 10-year disqualification period for individuals convicted under the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) laws, overturning a previous decision that reduced the disqualification to five years. The court’s division bench, comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz, suspended the verdict issued by its single bench, which had shortened the disqualification period.
The decision was made during the hearing of a plea filed by NAB challenging the reduction of the 10-year disqualification to five years for one of its convicts, Faiq Ali Jamali, a politician associated with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). The Senior Special Prosecutor for NAB, Muhammad Rafi, informed the IHC about the Supreme Court upholding Jamali’s sentence.
In response to NAB’s plea, the IHC reinstated the 10-year disqualification for Jamali, preventing him from contesting elections. The prosecutor emphasized that, according to NAB law, the disqualification period should be ten years.
