SHC tribunal disqualifies PTI candidate from contesting Senate election.

Byline: Ishaq Tanoli

KARACHI -- An election tribunal of the Sindh High Court on Monday disqualified a candidate of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) for contesting the March 3 Senate election.

The tribunal headed by Justice Agha Faisal ruled that Saifullah Abro did not meet the criteria laid down in the law to contest Senate election on a technocrat seat.

The appellant, Ghulam Mustafa Memon, filed an appeal against the Feb 18 order issued to a returning officer (RO) of the Election Commission of Pakistan to accept nomination papers of Mr Abro for the Senate election on a technocrat seat.

While representing the appellant, senior lawyer Rasheed A. Razvi argued that the PTI candidate did not qualify within the statutory definition of technocrat as the only achievement placed before the RO was a certificate issued to a firm for the completion of some projects and the same could not be considered a national or international achievement by the respondent.

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The lawyer for Mr Abro, Haider Waheed, argued that the appeal was not maintainable under Section 113(3) of the Election Act 2017 and the respondent had duly completed the relevant education, requirements and the achievements were also demonstrated by the completion of 13 construction projects within 20 years.

The tribunal observed that the Supreme Court had illumined the definition of technocrat for determination of eligibility of a candidature in such pre-electoral matters and the record of achievements was to be subjected to scrutiny whether the same was nationally or internationally recognised.

It further said that there appeared to be three integral constituents of this definition, holding a degree requiring completion of 16 years education recognised by the Higher Education Commission, 20 years experience and record of achievements at the national and international level.

The tribunal further noted that the first two facets appeared to be satisfied as the respondent was a qualified civil engineer and had over 20 years experience in...