Through this writ petition, the petitioner has challenged the vires of order dated 16.12.2016 passed by Returning Officer District Council, Bahawalnagar whereby the request of petitioner for the withdrawal of nomination papers has been turned down.
2. Briefly stated, the facts of the instant case are that petitioner who is joint candida te for the seat of Vice Chairman District Council, Bahawalnagar , moved an application to Returning Officer concerned seeking withdrawal of his nomination papers and the said application has been rejected by the Return ing Officer. Feeling aggrieved, petitioner has filed the instant writ petition.
3. Learned counsel for petitioner contends that under Rule 16 of the Punjab Local Governments (Conduct of Elections) Rules, 2013, nomination papers of the petitioner and his joint candidates of the panel shall stand withdrawn and the returning officer is required to proceed under Rule 16(3) of Punjab Local Government (Conduct of Elections) Rules, 2013 and cause the nomination papers to be withdrawn. He further contends that under rule 16 of the Rules (ibid), panel of the petitioner is not qualified to contest election for the seat of Chairman and Vice Chairman of District Council, Bahawalnagar and joint candidacy is regulated under the legal doctrine of sinker where actions, deeds, rights, liabilities, qualifications and disqualifications of one of joint candidates is ipso facto applied and effects the other candidates of the joint candidacy . To support his contentions, learned counsel places reliance on the judgments reported as "Ch. Muhammad Azeem v. Election Tribunal/District & Sessions Judge and 8 others "(2007 MLD 1717) and "Mudassar Munir v. Returning Officer , U.C. Nos.1 to 8 and others "(2016 YLR 1648 ).
4. On the other hand, learned counse l for respondents and learned Law Officer for Election Commission of Pakistan fully support the impugned order and pray for dismissal of the instant writ petition.
5. I have heard the learned counsel for the parties at length and perused the file.
6. It is not disputed that petitioner is a joint candidate for the seat of Vice Chairman as panel and along with others submitted his nomination papers which have been duly accepted by Returning Officer concerned and as per schedule given by the Election Commission of Pakistan, date specified for the withdrawal of nomination papers was 16.12.2016 and on the said date, petitioner made an application with a request for withdrawal of his nomination papers on the ground that voluntarily and with his free will he wanted to withdraw nomination papers as he did not want to contest the elections.
7. In view of Rule 12 of the Rules (ibid) a Chairman and Vice Chairmen of a District Council as joint candidates may file nomination papers in Form-II(B) duly signed by both the proposer and seconder and shall, on solemn affirmation made, be signed by joint candidates and by following this very rule a panel of candidates submit their nomination papers for requisite seats and in view of Section 16 of the Rules (ibid) any validly nominated candidate, or as the case may be, joint candidates may, by notice in writing signed by the candidate or candidates and delivered to the Returning Officer on or before the withdrawal day, either by the candidate in person or by an agent, duly authorized in this behalf in writing by such candidate may withdraw candidature, as the case may be, and such notice shall not be open to recall or cancellation. On receiving a notice of withdraw al under sub-rule (1) of rule 16, the Returning Officer shall, if he is satisfied that the signatures on the notice are that of the candidate(s), cause a copy of the notice to be affixed at a conspicuous place in his office. The rules quoted above clearly indicate that nomination papers cannot be withdrawn unilaterally and an application for withdrawal must have been signed by candidates who submitted their nomination papers jointly . To strengthen this view, reliance can be made to the judgments reported as "Sh. Muhammad Akram and another v. Sh. Muhammad Yaqub and others "(PLD 2006 Lahore 24) and "Hafiz Basheer Ahmad v. Appellate Authroity/Additional District Judge and 2 others "(2016 YLR 1367 ), in which it has been held that individual candidate could file application or submit notice in writing signed by him for withdrawal of his candid ature but in case of joint candidatures said notice or application must be signed by the candidates. Chairman and Vice Chairman of Zila Council have to contest election in a panel of joint candidates. Therefore, the said candidates have to submit joint nomination papers signed by them as well as their proposer and seconder . Returning Officer has to accept or reject their nomination papers jointly and not individually and the candidates have to sign the application for withdrawal and neither the candidate for post of chairman nor for Vice Chairman individually can withdr aw the joint nomination papers submitte d by them in the panel as joint candidature. As the petitioner has no right to withdraw joint nomination papers at his own without consent and signature of other candidates, so the impugned order has been passed in accordance with law .
8. In this view of the matter , no illegality or infirmity has been found in the order impugned herein, therefore, this petition being devoid of any force is dismissed .