Lahore:
On Wednesday, the High Court of Lahore (LHC) ordered its registrar’s office to reconsider a petition contesting the president of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, as a member of the National Assembly, after the objections to the deposit are processed.
Judge Khalid Ishaq published the directive during the preliminary hearing of a constitutional petition filed by Ashba Kamran.
The petitioner argued that the simultaneous association of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari with two distinct political entities – PPP and parliamentarians of the Pakistani People’s Party (PPPP) – constitutes a violation of article 203 (3) of the Elections Act, 2017.
According to the petition, Bilawal is president of the PPP, which uses the electoral symbol “Sword”, while he was elected MNA in the general elections of 2018 and 2024 of the PPPP, which uses the “Arrow” symbol.
Kamran argued that the two entities are recorded separately from the Pakistan Electoral Commission (ECP) and that double membership of the two contravenes electoral laws and constitutional obligations.
“The ECP, despite being the constitutional guardian of the electoral process, failed to enforce article 203 (3) and its own pre -electoral directives published at the return officers on June 13, 2024,” said the petitioner.
She argued that the double role of Bilawal leading a party while contesting the elections under another violates not only the law on elections, but also article 5 of the Constitution, which obliges loyalty to the State and adhesion to the Constitution.
In addition, she affirmed that the practice has deceived the voters and violated article 4, which guarantees equal protection and equity under the law.
Kamran also asked that the court convenes the secretaries general and the information secretaries of the PPP and the PPP-P to produce the documentation of the ECP specifically certificates under article 209 which clarify the official designation of Bilawal. She argued that the continuous leadership of Bilawal of the PPP, although it was an elected representative under the banner of the PPPP, is deceptive and legally untenable.
Stressing that Bilawal was elected without opposition as president of the PPP in intra-party elections which were held in January 2021 and again in April 2025, Kamran alleged that such double roles were not only illegal but compromised the credibility of the democratic process.
