Tribunal rejects GDA leaders Zulfiqar Mirza, Fahmida Mirza’s appeals

The Appellate Election Tribunal in Karachi on Monday rejected the appeals filed by Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) leaders from Badin Zulfiqar Mirza, also a former Sindh home minister, and his wife Fahmida Mirza, also a former National Assembly (NA) speaker, against the rejection of their nomination papers by the returning officers (ROs), reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Both Fahmida and Zulfiqar had filed papers for the NA and the Sindh Assembly constituencies NA-223 Badin and PS-70, PS71 and PS-72, respectively.

The tribunal, in its verdict, said that Fahmeeda was a loan defaulter.

He went on to say that the RO had rejected the papers of both husband and wife over the violation of the Election Act and the constitution of Pakistan.

Three days ago, on Thursday, the tribunal had issued notices to the returning officers and the Election Commission of Pakistan on the appeals filed by Fahmida and Zulfiqar against the rejection of their papers.

Papers of both husband and wife had been rejected a week ago.

On the other hand, an appellate election tribunal in Lahore, comprising Justice Muhammad Tariq Nadeem, accepted the appeals filed by former Punjab governor and PTI leader Mian Azhar and his son PTI leader Hammad Azhar against the rejection of their nomination papers for NA-129, Lahore by annulling the decision of the ROs.

Yesterday, Justice Ahmad Nadeem Arshad had accepted the appeal of Hammad against the rejection of his papers for PP-171.

Reporters: Mumtaz Jamali and Malik Ashraf