PESHAWAR( Khyber Point) The decision of Election Commission regarding disqualification of members of assemblies of Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) has been challenged in Peshawar High Court (PHC).
As per media reports the petitions against disqualification of SIC chairman Sahibzada Hamid Raza, Roy Hassan Khan, Roy Murtaza Iqbal ,Roy Haider Ali and Roy Ansar Iqbal came up for hearing in PHC.
A two members bench of PHC comprising Justice Waqar Ahmad and justice Muhammad Ejaz Khan took up the petitions for hearing.
Syed Sikandar Shah advocate counsel for the petitioners took the plea the petitioners are members of National Assembly (NA) and Provincial Assembly (PA) who were disqualified by Election Commission (EC) on August 05 after having been convicted and sentenced by Anti Terrorism Court (ATC) Faisalabad.
The counsel told the court sentence was announced in the absence of his clients and EC de-seated them overnight without waiting for appeal pleas . In such cases only conviction is not sufficient for disqualification and court’s decisions in the past are there with reference to it.
During the hearing of the case Additional Attorney General (AAG) Sana Ullah and representatives of EC raised objection these all constituencies belong to Punjab and for this the petitioners can resort to Lahore High Court (LHC) or Islamabad High Court (IHC).
Additional DG Law of EC told the court that 2 petitions of similar nature have been dismissed there earlier.
Justice Waqar Ahmad remarked when millions of people elect any member of assembly then the rights of these voters are also affected. Every sentence does not serve as cause for disqualification.
The court also remarked on the arguments of counsel for the petitioner the cases related to election symbols and reserved seats were heard in this court in the past. Supreme Court (SC) never took the stance that PHC cannot hear such cases.
The counsel requested the court the way the court suspended election schedule of constituency of Zartaj Gill, equal treatment be also meted out in the matter of the petitioners.
After hearing the arguments of the respondents , the court remarked order will be issued in this regard.
