An Election Appellate Tribunal has thrown the ruling PTI out of the NA-133 by-election contest by rejecting the appeals of its candidates against turning down of their nomination papers, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

PTI’s candidate Jamshed Iqbal Cheema and his covering candidate Musarrat Cheema had challenged the returning officer’s decision to reject their nomination papers as their proposer did not belong to the NA-133 constituency of Lahore.

The election tribunal upheld the returning officer’s decision ruling that their approvers have votes in NA-130 so they cannot become approvers of NA-133 candidates.

The election tribunal consisting of Justice Shahid Jameel Khan heard the appeals of the PTI’s candidates. Lawyers representing the returning officers and other respondents appeared before the court and submitted their arguments. Mobinuddin Qazi and Rana Shakoor represented Jamshed Cheema and Musarraft Cheema whereas Barrister Ahmad Qayyum represented opposer Mirza Faisal.

Two days ago, Jamshed Cheema and Musarrat Cheema had challenged the rejection of their nomination papers for the NA-133 by-election in the Appellate Tribunal. As Wednesday was the last day for challenging decisions of the Returning Officer (RO), the PTI candidate had filed an appeal against RO’s decision.

Their counsels insisted that Jamshed Cheema’s nomination papers were correct as per law and were rejected by RO on the grounds that his proposer was not from the NA-133 constituency.

They insisted the proposer actually belonged to the same constituency as his ID card and domicile carry an address from the area and the local union council chairman also verified that.

Earlier, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had rejected allegations of Jamshed Cheema. According to the election commission, the proposers for Jamshed and Musarrat Cheema were voters of NA-130 since 2018.

Reporter Malik Ashraf