ECP withdraws notification of Ishaq Dar's senatorship

ISLAMABAD - The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) withdrew a notification of former finance minister Ishaq Dar's election as a senator on Friday.

The action was taken in the light of Supreme Court orders as in May, the apex court had suspended Dar’s senatorship on a temporary basis.

The top court had issued the directives on a petition moved by Pakistan Peoples Party's Nawazish Pirzada who had requested the august court to suspend the Lahore High Court judgment that allowed Dar to contest the Senate elections.

On February 17, an appellate election tribunal of the LHC had granted Dar permission to contest elections for the Upper Chamber of the Parliament, overruling the returning officer who had rejected his nomination papers.

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Dar, who is a member of extended Sharif family, was successfully elected to the Senate from Punjab but did not take oath of his office.

The former finance minister has been out of the country since October 2017 on account of his medical treatment; he has also been declared a proclaimed offender in a corruption case filed against him by the National Accountability Bureau.

Recently, Dar was seen avoiding harsh questions aimed at him by newsmen in London when he was leaving the Harley Street Clinic, after having visited Begum Kulsoom Nawaz.

One of the newsmen asked Dar that he was ailing, yet continued roaming outside. To which, he replied that he was ill and he knew it.

The former lawmaker faced tough time because the journalists kept him following till he hopped in his car.

As soon as the former minister sat inside his car, the newsmen again started asking questions to which Dar smiled, visibly perturbed but with no other option.

"When will you return to Pakistan?" another reporter asked to which he replied: "I will return whenever my health improved."