UMAR FAROOQ vs SAJJAD AHMAD QAMAR S — 2024 PLD 688 SUPREME-COURT

Fields are extracted from the reported citation and judgment text. Where a detail is not stated in the record, it is not shown.

UMAR FAROOQ VS SAJJAD AHMAD QAMAR S. 62(9)---Elections for seat of National Assembly/Provincial Assembly---Nomination papers---Absconder---Fugitive from law---Proclaimed offender---Eligibility to contest elections---Disadvantage, if any, for being a proclaimed offender ordinarily relates only to the case in which a person has been so proclaimed, and not to the other cases or matters which have no nexus to that case---In the absence of any contrary provision in the Constitution or the Elections Act 2017 ("Act"), status of a person as a proclaimed offender in a criminal case does not affect his civil right to contest an election---Clearly, if a proclaimed offender can contest elections someone who is only alleged to be an absconder can equally do so. Citation Name: 2024 PLD 688 SUPREME-COURTBookmark this Case UMAR FAROOQ VS SAJJAD AHMAD QAMAR S. 62(9)---Election Rules, 2017, R. 51---Elections for seat of National Assembly/Provincial Assembly---Nomination papers---Form and content---Requirement of filing an affidavit along with nomination papers disclosing such criminal cases (if any) as were pending against the candidate six months prior to the filing of the nomination in terms of the order reported as Speaker, National Assembly of Pakistan and others v. Habib Akram and others PLD 2018 SC 678 ("Habib Akram order")---Not applicable to General Elections 2024---Such arrangement of filing affidavits brought about by the 'Habib Akram order' was only an interim measure---Looking at the 'Habib Akram order' as a whole and the context in which it came to be made, it applied only to the General Elections of 2018 and, at most, to the 2018 election cycle that those elections engendered---That would include any bye-elections held in that cycle and also elections to the Senate held during that period---But that is all---To conclude otherwise, i.e., that the order extended beyond that cycle, would be incorrect---Firstly, that would give the order a degree of permanence and continuity quite contrary to its stated interim nature---It would be as though the matters in which the order was made had been finally decided and disposed of---That, of course, is not the case---Secondly, such characterization and application of the order would run against the grain of the present electoral framework, where the form and contents of the nomination paper were within the domain of the primary legislative process---'Habib Akram order', being an interim measure, had ceased to be operative, since the 2018 election cycle had come to an end -- It had no application for the General Elections of 2024 or for any elections held or to be held in the present election cycle---Inasmuch as candidates have been required to file affidavits in terms thereof or with reference thereto for the said General Elections or any elections thereafter, that cannot entail any legal consequences or penalties at any stage of the relevant electoral process, including any election dispute taken, or to be taken, to an Election Tribunal---This will continue to be so until either the electoral framework relating to nomination papers is altered by primary legislation, or the matters in which the 'Habib Akram order' came to be made are decided finally and conclusively in the same or similar terms, or the said order is expressly extended by the Court---Certainly, absent any such contingencies, the Election Commission cannot require candidates for any election in the present election cycle to file such affidavits. Citation Name: 2024 PLD 688 SUPREME-COURTBookmark this Case UMAR FAROOQ VS SAJJAD AHMAD QAMAR S. 62(2)---Elections for seat of National Assembly/Provincial Assembly---Nomination papers---Scrutiny---Attendance of candidate at the time of scrutiny---Not mandatory---There is no requirement for the candidate to be in attendance before the returning officer at the time of scrutiny of his nomination papers---Subsection (2) of section 62 of the Elections Act, 2017 is an enabling provision, which makes it permissible (but not mandatory) for, inter alia, a candidate to attend the scrutiny of his nomination paper.

UMAR FAROOQ vs SAJJAD AHMAD QAMAR S — 2024 PLD 688 SUPREME-COURT

Case information

Judgment text as reported

Other judgments reported in 2024 PLD