Nawaz, Shahbaz out of election race

Lahore, Dec 8: Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz Sharif are finally out of the election race, as they did not challenge their disqualification, saying that they would not seek justice from PCO judges. The last day for the filing of appeals against decisions of returning officers pertaining to acceptance and rejection of nomination papers was on Friday. The election tribunal office at the Lahore High Court confirmed that they had not received any appeal from Nawaz and Shahbaz on the last day, The News reported.

However, the Sharif brothers have sent letters to the Chief Election Commissioner to record their protest against the rejection of their papers, Khwaja Haris, their lawyer, said.

Citing reasons for sending letters to the CEC, Haris said the Sharif brothers considered the CEC as the only official who had not taken oath under the PCO.

Nawaz, in his letter, has complained that the returning officer had rejected his papers on the basis of incomplete and unverified record, Haris said.

Nawaz pointed out that his papers were accepted in 2002 when he was in exile, but in 2007 his papers had been dismissed despite the fact that over the last five years circumstances had changed in their favour.

Haris quoted Shahbaz as saying that it had never happened in the history that a person was barred from contesting elections on the ground that a case stood registered against him.

Shahbaz made the point that neither the People Representative Act 1976 nor the Constitution rendered such a person ineligible to participate in elections.

He said under the election law, a person who was convicted on the basis of "abscondence" could be disqualified, said Haris quoting Shahbaz.

ANI>