Punjab rejects nominations with Madaris certificates
Pakistan Times National News Desk

LAHORE: In second phase of the local bodies polls District Returning Officers here declared the Nazim and Naib Nazim candidates holding Madaris certificates ineligible to contest polls saying that the certificates of Madaris are not equal to the matriculation certificate.

DRO’s refused to accept Shahadat-ul-Alamiya and Shahadat-ul-Saniya certificates submitted by the candidates of the UC Nazim and Naib Nazim seats with their nomination papers in screening of nominations for the second phase of the LB polls.

The Grounds

The returning officers refused to accept these Madaris certificates on the grounds that unless the person holding these certificates doesn’t pass English, Urdu and Pakistan Studies papers from a secondary education board the certificates could not be recognized equal to the matriculation.

District Returning Officers also rejected nomination papers of the candidates who had passed matriculation in ‘F’ grade under “ No Fail No Pass” scheme.

They said in decision that ‘F’ grade was equal to fail, so the ‘F’ grade result card couldn’t be considered equal to matriculation.

Papers of two candidates Rejected

The district returning officer (Rawalpindi), Zahoor Abbasi, Tuesday disposed of two appeals filed against the nomination papers of two candidates for the slot of union council nazim who belonged to Gujar Khan.

Advocate Yahya Faiz, a candidate for the slot of nazim in Union Council Krunb Ilyas, appealed against the decision of the returning officer, Gujar Khan, who had accepted the nomination papers of his rival Raja Zameer Minhas.

The advocate challenged the acceptance of nomination papers on the grounds that he did not bear good reputation and produced the judgement of the Lahore High Court before the district returning officer.

The Lahore High Court, in its order in 2001 observed that Zameer Minhas had been involved in car-lifting, therefore, he did not have a good reputation. Some 36 FIRs of car-lifting and other similar activities were registered against him, some of them are still pending in courts.

The district returning officer upheld the 2001 judgement of the Lahore High Court and barred Zameer Minhas from contesting local government elections.

In another appeal filed by Chaudhry Azeem, a candidate for nazim’s office in Union Council Thathi, against another contestant for the same slot Chaudhry Aziz, the district returning officer decided against the acceptance of nomination papers of the latter.

Chaudary Azeem challenged the acceptance on the basis that Chaudhry Aziz produced a fake matriculation certificate before the returning officer, Gujar Khan.

Finding his document bogus, the district returning officer rejected the nomination papers of Chaudhry Aziz.●