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Friday, May 03, 2013
LHC puts off Musharraf’s plea to contest pollsLAHORE: A full bench of the Lahore High Court postponed for May 6 for further arguments a petition by former president and All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) chief Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf, challenging the rejection of his nomination papers for National Assembly seat NA-139, Kasur.
On Thursday, Musharraf’s counsel advanced arguments pleading that the petitioner was given a guard of honour and a warm send off while leaving the country and now, on his return, he was treated like a terrorist.
He said that no court had accused him of subverting the constitution. He said that the question of contesting or not contesting the election was not that important, the former president wanted to clear the charges levelled against him.
An election tribunal on the appeal of his rival candidate Javed Kasur on April 16 had held Gen (r) Musharraf disqualified from contesting election. Before the tribunal, Musharraf’s counsel had failed to come up with a satisfactory answer when asked by the tribunal to justify the acts taken by the former president on November 3, 2007.
Musharraf’s counsel pleaded that the petitioner was not convicted in any case, and on the basis of pending cases, he could not be held disqualified. He pleaded that it was his fundamental right to contest election, but the returning officer and the election tribunal had declared him ineligible to contest election, which was unconstitutional. He stated that the returning officer while rejecting his nomination papers wrongly invoked provisions of articles 62 and 63 of the constitution. He requested the court to set aside the orders and allow Gen (r) Musharraf to contest election from NA-139. staff report
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk