Former Pakistani PM challenges election ban

In this file photo, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi speaks with a Reuters correspondent during an interview at his office in Islamabad, Pakistan. (REUTERS)

• PML-N claims ‘election bias’ following leadership disqualifications
• PML-N accuses state forces of poll rigging and targeting of party leaders, but vows to work its way to victory

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s former prime minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, on Thursday challenged the decision of an election tribunal that refused to accept his nomination for the upcoming election and disqualified him for life.
Abbasi claimed the tribunal overstepped its authority under a controversial constitutional clause that requires aspiring candidates and public office holders to be truthful and honest.
The former PM, who is seeking to contest the poll from his home constituency in Murree, was disqualified on Wednesday after the tribunal in Rawalpindi scrutinized his nomination documents and said he had concealed facts and withheld information.
The tribunal ordered that Abbasi “is not a sadiq (truthful) and ameen (honest) person” and is, therefore, “not a qualified person to be elected or chosen as a Member of Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament)” under the conditions set by Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973.”
The same constitutional proviso was used to disqualify Abbasi’s ousted leader and predecessor Nawaz Sharif in July last year.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) stalwart and former foreign minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif was also disqualified under the same clause near the end of the party’s tenure, but a court later overturned the decision.
PML-N information secretary Mushahidullah Khan claims the party is being systematically persecuted and victimized. “The disqualification decisions since July are one-sided, partial and biased,” Khan told Arab News.
The latest blow to the PML-N signals pre-poll engineering to create obstacles for the party leadership, he said.
“If it were any other political party, it would have collapsed, but we have been unified and resilient.”
Khan said he is confident the party will win in the upcoming polls unless the elections are rigged.
Although Abbasi has been granted permission by the tribunal to stand for elections from the Islamabad constituency after a temporary setback of rejection, Khan fears more challenges as the polls approach.
“If he has been disqualified for one constituency, I don’t see how the tribunal is allowing him campaign in another,” said Khan.
In a statement sent to Arab News after meetings with the European Union Chief Election Observer, Michael Gahler, and the President of the National Democratic Institute, Kenneth Wollack, Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, chairman of the PML(N) Central Media Committee, said his party would resist any attempt at rigging or interference, intimidation or manipulation of the elections.
Political pundits observe a misuse of the controversial constitutional clauses inserted during military rule in the 1980s to squeeze politicians and crush their popularity.
Political analyst Dr. Nazir Hussain told Arab News that politics in Pakistan “wouldn’t be politics without some sort of manipulation” and agreed that the constitutional clauses were being used against some politicians.
Another political expert, Qamar Cheema, said that with the antigraft watchdog “NAB and judicial activism over-stretching its authority, the public perception is that state institutions are proactive for a particular purpose, which is not to let PML-N have a favorable environment for contesting elections.”
“Institutions will have to dispel this impression, otherwise their credibility will be at stake. PML-N’s leadership is in trouble. Elections are around the corner and this makes PML-N’s case of victimhood more serious,” said Cheema.