ISLAMABAD: In a major sigh of relief for the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), three of its candidates, including the party’s jailed president Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, were on Friday granted permission by the Supreme Court to contest Feb. 8 elections, the PTI said, weeks after their nomination papers were rejected by an election tribunal.
PTI founder and former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and most senior leaders of the party have been rejected as candidates for the vote in what they say is a campaign backed by the military-led establishment to thwart their participation. The army says it does not interfere in politics.
“The Supreme Court of Pakistan has issued an order on a petition by President PTI Pervez Elahi, allowing him to contest elections,” the party said in a statement shared with media. “Not allowing contesting election is a violation of basic fundamental rights, the court observed.”
Elahi has been allowed to contest the general election from the PP-32 constituency of Gujarat district. An election tribunal had rejected his nomination papers earlier this month, a decision that was upheld by the Lahore High Court. The former Punjab chief minister then approached the Supreme Court, challenging the verdict, with the top ruling in his favor on Friday.
Elahi was arrested on June 1 last year in a graft case related to the embezzlement of development funds allocated for the Gujrat district and has been behind bars ever since. He says the charges are politically motivated and due to his support for Khan.
The senior PTI leader has been released on bail several times since his first arrest, only to be taken into custody again immediately in different cases, including a money laundering case and allegations of illegal political appointments in the Punjab Assembly.
Besides Elahi, the Supreme Court also approved appeals of PTI candidates Umer Aslam, Major (retd) Tahir Sadiq, Sanam Javaid Khan, and Shukat Basra against decisions by returning officer to reject their nomination papers from different constituencies.
Khan, 71, was ousted in April 2022 after falling out with Pakistan's powerful military leaders who are widely believed to have backed him into power in 2018. The army denies this.
In opposition, he waged an unprecedented campaign of defiance against the military establishment, accusing it of engineering his removal from office in a no-confidence vote via a US-backed conspiracy, and of plotting an assassination attempt that saw him wounded. Both the US and the military deny the allegations.
After Khan's brief detention in May last year sparked unrest, the PTI has been the subject of a widespread crackdown, with leading figures either jailed or forced to leave the party.
Khan is himself currently in jail in a graft case and faces various other charges ranging from terrorism to treason and attempted murder.
