This is petition under section 76-A of the Representation of the People Act, 1976 filed by Mr. Mazhar Ahmad Qureshi challenging the election of Muhammad Ilyas, respondent, to the Punjab Provincial Assembly from Constituency PP-23 Sargodha.
2. Learned counsel for the petitioner has contended that the wife of the respondent was Learned defaulter in repayment of the loan obtained by wife (Mrs. Sofia Mir) from A.D.B.P. And a decree also stands passed against her in 1988 which has not been honoured. According to the learned counsel, the other disqualification which the respondent suffers is that he has concealed this fact in his nomination form though he was required by section 12 (viii) of the Representation of People Act, 1976 to furnish a statement of assets and liabilities of his own and that of his spouse as on 30-6- 1996.
3. In reply, Mr. Muhammad Ashraf Khan, learned counsel for respondent has stated that the above stated loan was obtained by Sofia Mir on 10-7-1977 at the time when she had not married the respondent and as such, the respondent cannot be held to be a defaulter in view of explanation of section 12 of the Representation of People Act, 1976 as amended, nor was it necessary for the petitioner to mention the said loan in his nomination form.
4. There is no dispute on facts. Learned counsel for the petitioner has admitted that the loan in question was obtained by Mrs. Sofa Mir in the year 1977 much before her marriage with the respondent which took place in 1980. His further contention, however, is that as the decree was passed against the wife of the petitioner on 21-7-1978, non-satisfaction of that decree renders the respondent ineligible from contesting the election and that in any case the fact of having obtained loan and decree being passed against the wife should have been disclosed by the respondent in the nomination form.
5. These contentions are without force. According to Explanation to section 12 of the Representation of People Act, 1976 as amended, for the purposes of that section, the expression "loan" means the loan, advance, credit or finance obtained or written off on or after 31-12-1985. Admittedly, it was in the year 1977 that Mrs. Sofia Mir had obtained the questioned loan and as such in view of Explanation mentioned above, that loan was not relevant for the purposes of section 12. The fact that a decree was passed for the recovery of loan of Rs.4,13,579 against the wife of the respondent in 1988 is of no consequence as the fact remains that the loan was advanced prior to 31-12-1985.
For the same reason, it was not necessary for the respondent to mention in his nomination form that his wife obtained some loan as in view of Explanation which applies -to all clauses of subsection (2) of section 12 any loan obtained prior to 31-12-1985 would be outside the purview of sub section (2) of section 12 (iii) of the Representation of People Act, 1976.
This petition has no force which is accordingly dismissed leaving the parties to bear their own costs.