The Lahore High Court tribunal has granted permission to Rehana Imtiaz Ud Din Dar, the mother of former PTI leader Usman Dar, to participate in the elections. On Tuesday, hearings were conducted on appeals against the rejection of the nomination papers of Rehana Dar and her sister-in-law Robina Umar in the Lahore High Court.
Rehana Dar had chosen a stance in the tribunal’s petition, stating that she is contesting the National Assembly election from Sialkot, while her nomination papers were rejected on political grounds.
In the petition, the reasons provided by the returning officer for rejecting the papers were mentioned, stating, “They were asked who their guarantor is, and a false claim of 40 marla land forgery was leveled against them.” The court declared the decision to reject her nomination papers null and void and granted permission to participate in the election.
During the hearing, Justice Shakeel Ahmed of the Lahore High Court, while accepting the appeal, declared the returning officer’s decision null and void, allowing Rehana Dar to contest the election.
Rehana Dar is the PTI candidate from NA-71 Sialkot, and she is expected to compete against the potential candidate Khawaja Asif from the PML-N.
After the hearing, Rehana Dar’s lawyer, Abuzar Salman Niazi, shared an image on Twitter showing Rehana Dar with Advocate Salman Akram Raja, possibly celebrating their legal victory.
Remember that previously, Rehana Dar had alleged in a statement that, “According to credible information, the returning officer, Muhammad Iqbal Khwaja Asif, under pressure, has the intention to reject my nomination papers. I want to make it clear that I am a player of Captain (Imran Khan), and I will confront Khwaja Asif until the last ball. I will challenge any unlawful attempt, including taking it to the higher judiciary, including the Supreme Court.”
Currently, hearings are underway on petitions filed against the rejection of nomination papers across the country.
So far, nomination papers of former MPA Shandana Gulzar from NA-30 Peshawar and former federal minister Shehryar Afridi from NA-35 have been accepted.
In addition, the tribunal has also approved the nomination papers of lawyer Abuzar Maqsood Chaudhry from PP-138.
On the other hand, an appeal against the acceptance of nomination papers for Muslim League-N leader Abid Sher Ali from NA-102 Faisalabad was heard. However, Justice Asjad Javaid Ghural deemed the appeal inadmissible.
By MediaBites
