Pakistan poll body rejects ex-PM Imran Khan’s nomination for 2024 elections - aljazeera
The jailed leader’s bid to overturn his disqualification in the wake of conviction in a corruption case rejected by election body.Pakistan’s election body has rejected former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s nomination to contest the 2024 parliamentary elections, with Khan’s Pakistan Tahreek-e Insaf (PTI) party accusing authorities of stopping most of its candidates from participating in the elections due in February.
The 71-year-old former cricket star, who is serving a three-year prison sentence for corruption, was barred from politics for five years by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). But he still filed nomination papers on Friday.
Election officials disallowed Khan’s candidacy because of his conviction and what they said was his disqualification under the Constitution, according to documents seen by the AP. They also rejected the candidacies of former members of his cabinet.
The ECP released a list of rejected nominees from Lahore on Saturday, which also contained Khan’s name. It said the former prime minister could not become a nominee because he is not a registered voter of the constituency and due to him being “convicted by the court of law”.
The cricketer-turned-politician’s nomination bid was also rejected in his hometown of Mianwali in Punjab province, according to his media team.
Khan has not been seen publicly since his incarceration in August in the corruption case in which he was accused of unlawfully selling state gifts while in office.
Last week, the Supreme Court granted him bail in a case alleging he leaked state secrets, but he is continuing to fight a barrage of legal cases that have dogged him since being removed from office last year.
