Veteran Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Omar Ayub has withdrawn all petitions against his disqualification in the Supreme Court.
The development comes as the SC’s five-member constitutional bench on Monday hears the cases related to the disqualification of Ayub and another PTI leader Shibli Faraz. The hearing was conducted under the chairmanship of Justice Aminuddin Khan, APP reported.
During the proceedings, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan appeared before the court and informed that Ayub had decided to withdraw all his appeals. He further stated that Ayub’s wife would contest the election from his constituency. The appeal against the de-notification of the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly was also being withdrawn, as Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party Chairman Mahmood Khan Achakzai has already been notified as the new leader of the opposition.
Barrister Gohar added that Faraz had also directed the withdrawal of the appeal against the notification of the Senate chairman; however, the petition challenging the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)’s notification would be maintained.
He requested the court to issue notices on the petition against the election commission’s notification before the elections scheduled for October 30 on the vacant seat of Faraz.
The court issued notices on Faraz’s petition and adjourned the hearing until October 29.
On October 10, the PTI had sought early hearing of its senior leaders Ayub and Faraz’s disqualification case by the apex court, as elections on the seats vacated by them were scheduled soon.
Barrister Gohar had said they had lodged a second application seeking hearing of petitions, filed on behalf of the two leaders in a week or so. “It is most urgent to hear otherwise the petitions would become infructuous which is not warranted in the law,” he had written on his social media account.
Ayub and Faraz, along with other parliamentarians belonging to the PTI, were disqualified by the ECP on August 5 on the basis of their conviction by an anti-terrorism court, Faisalabad, in the 9th May incidents.