LAHORE:
District and Session Judge Syed Hamid Hussain Shah has issued arrest warrants for Rana Asif Mehmood for August 29 on a petition filed by the regional election commissioner seeking legal action against the former PML-N MPA for allegedly lying about having dual citizenship.
The judge also dismissed an application filed by Mehmood’s counsel seeking exemption from court attendance.
Mehmood had submitted that he was in Canada getting treatment for acute pancreatitis on the recommendation of doctors in Pakistan, so the court should exempt him from personally appearing for the proceedings.
The petitioner had submitted that Mehmood had contested the 2008 elections after declaring under oath that he was qualified to be an MPA under Article 62 of the Constitution and was not subject to disqualification under Article 63. He said that the Supreme Court had disqualified Mehmood for having dual citizenship, so he must have made a false declaration while filing his nomination papers for the 2008 election. This was a corruption offence under Section 78 of the Representation of the People Act of 1976 and Mehmood should be tried for it, said the petitioner.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 14th, 2013.