In a major blow to former prime minister Imran Khan, Pakistan’s top poll body on Saturday rejected his nomination papers for two national assembly seats in Punjab province ahead of the February 8 general elections.

“The returning officers of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) have rejected Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan’s nomination papers for two national assembly seats – Lahore (NA 122) and Mianwali (NA-89),” the office of the Returning Officer, Lahore, said here.

Besides the main reason that Khan was convicted in the Toshakhana case, objections were raised against his nomination papers as the proposer and seconder for the PTI’s founder did not belong to the respective constituencies.

Although Khan’s sentence was suspended by the Islamabad High Court, his disqualification still stands, the ROs were told. “The objections, raised by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Mian Naseer, had referred to Khan’s five-year disqualification in the Toshakhana case wherein the electoral body had found him guilty of corrupt practices,” Geo News reported.

Khan, 71, and his senior party colleague and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi have been facing multiple cases and arrests since the May 9 riots with both Khan and Qureshi incarcerated at the Adiala jail in Rawalpindi.

The Geo News report further said that the ECP also rejected Qureshi’s nomination papers from Multan’s two seats (NA-150 and PP-218), and Tharparkar’s seat (NA-214). Former federal minister and PTI leader Hammad Azhar’s nomination papers too were rejected from his seat (PP-172).

Meanwhile PTI on Saturday condemned the top poll body’s rejection of nomination papers of its founder Imran Khan and several other party stalwarts on what it called “flimsy grounds.”

“Abducting proposers and seconders is a new normal in this part of the world, the current state of lawlessness is preposterous,” a PTI spokesperson said after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) rejected nomination papers of Khan and others ahead of the February 8 general elections.

“Returning officers are accomplices and the reason why PTI requested ROs from the judiciary, not bureaucracy. Some group members may not be aware, but bureaucrats, including deputy commissioners, signing illegal restraining orders for PTI leadership have been appointed as ROs by the interim setup, adding more hostility to the already perpetuated situation,” he further said.