Former Pakistan premier Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz Sharif's candidature in the upcoming by-polls hung in the balance after a two-judge election gave a split verdict.
LAHORE: Former Pakistan premier Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz Sharif's candidature in the upcoming by-polls hung in the balance after a two-judge election tribunal gave a split verdict on validity of their nomination papers on Saturday, raising possibility of a prolonged legal battle.
Chief Election Commissioner Qazi Muhammad Farooq had entrusted appeals challenging the nomination papers of the Sharif brothers to the tribunal comprising Justices Muhammad Akram Qureshi and Hafiz Tariq Naseem after a bench of the Lahore High Court was unable to decide the matter.
The tribunal issued a split verdict this morning, with Qureshi saying the nominations were wrongly accepted and the Sharif brothers were disqualified from contesting the polls scheduled for June 26. Naseem, however, said they were properly nominated and could contest the polls.
The tribunal referred the matter back to the Chief Election Commissioner.
Ashtar Ausaf, the counsel for the Sharif brothers, told reporters that election laws stated that if any appeals against nominations were not decided with the timeframe laid down for deciding on the papers, the nominations were deemed to be accepted.
With Saturday being the last day for election authorities to decide on the validity of nomination papers for the by-polls, the nominations of the Sharif brothers would have to be accepted, Ausaf said.
However, other legal experts said the matter could now be referred to the Supreme Court.
The nominations of the Sharif brothers were challenged due to their alleged involvement in various criminal cases, including Nawaz Sharif's conviction in a case in which he was accused of hijacking for turning back an aircraft that was bringing then army chief Pervez Musharraf back to the country from a foreign trip in 1999.
Musharraf managed to return to Pakistan and led a military coup that removed Nawaz Sharif from the post of Prime Minister.
Legal experts also pointed out that it was not clear if Musharraf had pardoned Nawaz Sharif in this case before sending him into exile to Saudi Arabia in 2000.
Following the election tribunal's split verdict, the Chief Election Commissioner met senior officials of the Election Commission in Islamabad to discuss the matter.
Nawaz Sharif, who has been calling for Musharraf to be impeached, has alleged that the move to block his candidature in the by-polls was part of a conspiracy hatched by the Presidency.
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