Civil Appeal No.188 of 2019
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6
seeks not the rejection of a nomination paper but the voiding
of an election. Under Section 156 of the Election Act, 2017
(“the Act”), an election can only be declared void if the
nomination of the Returned Candidate was invalid or
procured or induced by any corrupt or illegal practice. He
maintains that there is a higher test than that prescribed for
rejection of a nomination paper and mere incorrectness in
any of the particulars is not sufficient to void the election. The
learned ASC maintains that in order to void an election it
must be shown that mis-statement in the nomination form is
of a kind to justify an inference of corrupt practice. It must be
established that the candidate intentionally made a false
statement/declaration or if a statement was made in the
circumstances so as to rule out the likelihood of a bona fide
error. He relies on Muhammad Hanif Abbasi v. Imran Khan
Niazi (PLD 2018 SC 189), Shakeel Awan v. Rasheed Ahmed
(PLD 2018 SC 643) and Muhammad Asif v. Muhammad
Usman Dar (2018 SCMR 2128). He finally submits that the
ratio of the judgments relied upon by the learned counsel for
the Appellant in support of his contentions is not attracted to
the facts and circumstances of the present case.
5.
We have heard the learned counsel for the parties
and examined the available record with their assistance. At
the very outset, we have noticed that Respondent No.1 did not
disclose his entire landholding in Deh Khedkar, District
Larkana which admittedly consists of 140.24½ acres. Out of
the said holding he only declared 61 acres but did not
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