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Another legal battle in Pak

A new legal battle erupted in Pakistan today as a provincial high court judge suspended an overnight Election Commission order, rejecting the nomination of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz)'s candidate for the December 31 presidential poll.

Lahore high court Justice Malik Mohammad Qayum, who ordered the suspension, called for the creation of a larger bench to hear the petition of the candidate, retired Supreme Court Justice Rafiq Ahmad Tarar, on December 23.

Justice Tarar, a former chief justice of the same court and now a ruling party senator, was nominated by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief for the office after president Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari resigned early this month.

Justice Tarar's nomination was rejected by Justice Mukhtar Ahmad Junejo, the acting chief election commissioner, saying that the candidate had defamed the judiciary in media interviews. He had called then chief justice Sajjad Ali Shah a 'judicial terrorist'.

Leghari had appointed Justice Junejo on the advice of then chief justice Shah at a time when Sharief's confrontation with the ex-president and the chief justice was at its height.

Objections to Justice Tarar's nomination had been raised by his rival for the presidency, Aftab Shaaban Mirani of the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party, and lawyer Shamim Ahmed.

The election commission also rejected 22 other minor candidates for the presidential poll.

UNI

EARLIER REPORT:
Sharief's move catches Pak unawares

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