Law allowing convicts to run for president still unchanged

Election Commision of Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: A controversial amendment in the presidential election rules that allows convicts, mentally-deranged persons and government servants to run for the office of president — enacted a decade ago to please retired Gen Pervez Musharraf — still holds the field. According to former Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) secretary Kanwar Dilshad, this stipulation could theoretically allow ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif to run for president, if Mamnoon Hussain were to step down. The ECP amended the rule governing presidential elections in September 2007, taking away the provision for disqualification of…

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