A Pakistan Election tribunal has barred the former military dictator Pervez Musharraf from running for parliament in the constituency where the nomination papers for the May 11, 2013 general elections were accepted. With the recent move the political ambitions of Musharraf have been stifled. The tribunal barred Musharraf on April 16, 2013.
Musharraf’s intentions of entering the Parliament ended the most almost a month before the general elections took place. The election tribunal had rejected his candidature for a parliamentary seat in Chitral. This was the only constituency where the nomination papers had been accepted.
The 69-year-old had plans to contest the polls in four parliamentary seats in Chitral, Kasur, Karachi and Islamabad. Moreover, two other election tribunals had barred Musharraf from contesting polls from the constituencies in Islamabad and Kasur in the province of Punjab. The tribunals consist of high court judges, who upheld the decisions by the Returning Officers to reject Musharraf’s nomination papers for National Assembly Constituencies.
The development has come a day after another election tribunal had dismissed Musharraf’s appeal against the rejection of his nomination papers for constituency in the southern port city of Karachi. The rivals said that Musharraf could not contest the elections as he violated the constitution by imposing an emergency rule in 2007. An appeal was filed by Musharraf in the tribunals against the Returning Officer’s decision.
