Plea in Pak SC against Imran Khan for contesting elections on all nine vacant assembly seats

Islamabad [Pakistan], September 5 (ANI): A plea has been filed in Pakistan's apex court against former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan contesting elections on nine vacant seats of the country's National Assembly, media reports said.
This comes as Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan is contesting by-polls from all nine seats, vacated after the NA speaker accepted PTI MNAs' resignations earlier.
Petitioner, Mian Asif Mehmood has filed a plea in Pakistan Supreme Court against Khan contesting elections from nine constituencies of the lower house of the Parliament, reported the country's local media outlet ARY News.
He criticized Imran Khan for earlier resigning from the lower house and boycotting the assembly. "Imran Khan contesting election from nine NA constituencies, while he had earlier resigned from the lower house and boycotted the assembly," he pleaded.
"Fighting for nine seats is a malicious act and against the constitution" he added.
Moreover, The Express Tribune reported petitioner while filing a separate writ petition earlier in the Lahore High Court implored that it has become a lacuna to contest elections on multiple seats by the candidates in the general elections that needed to be addressed as it is a very clear case of political exploitation.
Giving an illustration of the 2018 general elections, the petition stated that various candidates contested elections on multiple seats but later vacated the seats. "Imran Khan contested general elections 2018 on five seats simultaneously and won all the 5 seats, and later he vacated four seats and consequently the ECP had to re-poll on all four seats," the petition added.
According to ARY, Imran Khan and the Election Commission of Pakistan have been made respondents in the petition. Petitioner sought the court order to prevent the PTI chairman from contesting polls from nine National Assembly seats.
This is not the first time a petition has been filed in connection with Imran Khan's contesting elections for all the vacant seats of the legislature. In a similar plea, in early August, which was dismissed by the Lahore High Court (LHC), a petitioner challenged Imran Khan's decision to contest elections on all nine vacant seats of the legislature.
At the time of hearing the plea, Justice Shahid Jamil Khan had asked whether the nomination papers had been submitted to the election commission. To which, the counsel representing the petitioner had replied in negative.
Keeping this in view, the court termed the matter 'premature' and added that the petitioner should wait until the submission of the nomination papers and then file his objection with the ECP first and then approach the courts, as per the media portal. (ANI)