LAHORE: (DNA) –  The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Tuesday rejected Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed’s plea against ECP’s decision to postpone election on NA-60.

The ECP had announced to postpone the polls after  a court convicted PMLN leader Hanif Abbasi in  ephedrine case.

On Monday,the Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench dismissed Rasheed’s plea challenging the election commission’s order of postponing polls in NA-60 Rawalpindi following life term awarded to PML-N candidate Hanif Abbasi.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had postponed the election in NA-60 after Sheikh Rashid’s main rival  Hanif Abbasi was disqualified after being sentenced in the ‘ephedrine case’ last week.

The Awami Muslim League (AML) chief challenged the ECP order in the Rawalpindi bench of the LHC .

Justice Mujahid Mustaq of the Rawalpindi bench upheld the election commission’s decision regarding postponement of the elections in NA-60. “Our petition has been rejected by the high court. We will go to the Supreme Court,” Sheikh Rasheed’s lawyer said.

Shaikh Rasheed’s stance was that the election can only be postponed by a returning officer (RO) if one of the candidates passes away. His petition stated that the ECP had no right to postpone the election for any other reason. The ECP, as well as a lawyer for another candidate from NA-60, Rashid Gardezi, had opposed Rashid’s petition. Gardezi’s lawyer had asked what would happen if the elections were given a go-ahead and Abbasi receives “hundreds of thousands of votes” in defiance of his disqualification.