The Lahore High Court (LHC) dismissed on Saturday an appeal by senior PTI leader Chaudhry Parvez Elahi against an earlier rejection of his papers by the returning officer.
The court, however, granted permission to his wife, Qaisara Elahi, to contest the upcoming general elections.
Elahi’s lawyer, Shahzad Shoukat, said that allegations of concealing facts in the nomination papers have been made. “The accusations include not mentioning a license for seven weapons and the absence of a mention of a special account in the nomination papers.”
The lawyer emphasised that “according to the law, everything is stated in the papers, and an attempt was made to snatch the nomination papers. Pervez Elahi is a senior politician; he should be allowed to contest the elections”.
“They arrested their appointed representative when he went to submit the nomination papers,” said the lawyer while responding to queries from Justice Najafi. Justice Najafi questioned if it “is the responsibility of the ECP to issue timely orders? Did you file any complaint with the ECP?”
“We approached the court, and after court orders, we were allowed to go to the RO office.”
Subsequently, the court announced its verdict and rejected Elahi’s appeal.
To facilitate the submission of their nomination papers, authorised individuals were appointed to represent them before the returning officers of the respective constituencies. However, Qaisara Elahi claimed that these authorised individuals were facing obstruction from the Punjab police, including illegal abduction.
Separately, Moonis Elahi was ousted from the 2024 election race after the Lahore High Court rejected appeals against his nomination papers from all four constituencies.
Moonis Elahi is facing allegations of billions of rupees of corruption in development projects.
