relief
Islamabad
The Supreme Court on Monday allowed Balochistan National Party- Mengal (BNP-M) President Sardar Akhtar Mengal to contest the February 8 general elections from Quetta’s constituency of NA- 264.
A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa threw out a plea filed against the acceptance of Mengal’s nomination papers by Yasir Ahmad — one of his contenders in the constituency — and gave a clean chit to the BNP-M chief to contest the upcoming polls.
Last month, Mengal’s nomination papers were rejected by a Returning Officer (RO) in Khuzdar in connection with his alleged offshore company. The BNP-M leader, however, termed the RO’s decision a “well-planned conspiracy.”
Meanwhile, the Mengal challenged the RO’s decision before the election tribunal.
On January 5, the Baloch leader secured relief from the election tribunal as his nomination papers were accepted for the February 8 elections.
One of his contenders, meanwhile, challenged the election tribunal’s decision in this regard in the top court, which announced its verdict in favour of Mengal today.
Earlier, he had announced that his party would go to the “court of the masses” if the nomination papers were not accepted by the election tribunal.
On the other hand, the ECP is set to hold free, fair and peaceful general elections as per the schedule.
Almost 51% of the polling stations have been categorised “sensitive” by the ECP for the upcoming general elections on February 8.
Out of the total 90,675 polling stations, according to the electoral authority, 46,065 have been categorised as sensitive and 18,437 as highly sensitive.
