The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has banned Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi from running in elections for five years under Article 63 (1)(h) of the Constitution.
According to a notification issued by the ECP, the senior politician has been prohibited from contesting the next general elections on February 8 next week and following elections.
According to the announcement, Qureshi was found guilty in the cipher case by a special court constituted under the Official Secrets Act, for which he was sentenced to ten years of rirous imprisonment and disqualified under Article 63 (1)(h) of the Constitution.
On January 30, Imran Khan, the founder of the PTI, and Qureshi were both convicted of ten years in prison in the cipher case.
The case involves charges that the former prime minister made public the contents of a secret cable received from the country's ambassador in Washington to the government in Islamabad.
According to the ECP notification, Qureshi is also disqualified under Section 232 of the Elections Act of 2017. Qureshi had filed his nomination papers for the contest for a National Assembly seat in Sindh's NA-214 (Tharparkar).
The nomination papers of Qureshi and his son Zain Qureshi were rejected by the returning officer, but they were permitted to contest by the Sindh High Court's (SHC) appellate tribunal last month.
Qureshi, a Multan resident, contested for two provincial assembly seats in NA-150 and NA-151 (Multan); however, his papers were rejected by the returning officers, and his appeals were refused by the Lahore High Court's appellate tribunal (Multan Bench).
However, his disqualification would have no effect on the voting process in Tharparkar's NA-214, where he was permitted to run by the appellate tribunal, because elections could only be called off in the event of a contending candidate's death.