Sh Rasheed can contest 2018 elections, rules Supreme CourtISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday ruled in favour of Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rasheed throwing PML-N's Shakeel Awan petition seeking his disqualification.A three-member bench, headed by Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and comprising Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, announced the decision, after reserving its verdict in the case on March 20, 2018.The petition, filed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader, who lost the 2013 general election to Rasheed, claimed that the AML chief mis-declared his assets in his nomination papers and owned the error as well.The bench handed out a majority verdict.
Justice Isa wrote a dissenting note in which the honourable judge called for constituting full court to decide the matter.After the verdict, the AML chief said: "I have done nothing wrong and never hid any of my assets".During hearing of the petition, Awans counsel had argued before the three-member bench that according to the Representation of Peoples Act, it was necessary to accurately declare all of ones assets before contesting elections.He had asserted that the most recent court case regarding the wrong filling of nomination papers was the 2017 Panama Papers judgment.
Sh Rasheeds counsel, on the other hand, had contended that his client did not conceal anything and accepted that his client had owned the mistake in valuing his assets.