INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Pakistan&s election body has rejected former Prime Minister Imran Khan&s nomination to contest the 2024 national elections in two
constituencies, officials and his party&s media team said on Saturday.The 71-year-old former cricket star has been embroiled in a tangle of
political and legal battles since he was ousted as prime minister in April 2022
He has not been seen in public since he was jailed for three years in August for unlawfully selling state gifts while in office from 2018 to
2022.Khan has been disqualified from contesting the national elections scheduled for Feb
8 because of the corruption conviction, but he nevertheless filed nomination papers for the elections on Friday, his media team said,
Reuters reported.In a list of rejected candidates from Lahore, the Election Commission of Pakistan said Khan&s nomination was rejected
because he was not a registered voter of the constituency and because he is &convicted by the court of law and has been disqualified&.His
media team said the commission had also rejected his nomination to contest the elections from his hometown, Mianwali.Khan, who is widely
seen as the country&s most popular leader, says he is being targeted by the powerful military, which wants to keep him out of the polls
The military denies this.Last week, a high court refused to suspend Khan&s disqualification from contesting the elections.In addition to
Khan, the election commission has also rejected nomination papers submitted by other senior party members, including Shah Mehmood Qureshi,
vice chairman of Khan&s party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI).Meanwhile, the election commission accepted former Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif&s nomination from two constituencies for the 2024 elections, weeks after a court overturned two graft convictions.But Sharif still
needs a life ban on holding any public office to be removed to qualify to stand, so it was not immediately clear how his nomination was
A hearing on that ban will be held in January.Sharif was banned from running in elections in 2017 by the Supreme Court, which declared him
dishonest for not disclosing income from a company owned by his son.Sharif, who arrived back home in October from four years of self-imposed
exile in Britain, is bidding for a fourth premiership in the February elections
His biggest challenge will be to wrest back his support base from Khan.The post Pakistan election body rejects ex-PM Imran Khan&s nomination
for 2024 elections first appeared on Ariana News.
