The Supreme Court will hear Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Khawaja Asif’s petition challenging his disqualification by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) next week.
The apex court formed a three-member bench headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial to hear the plea on May 7. Justices Faisal Arab and Sajjad Ali Shah are the other members of the bench.
Asif had challenged his disqualification verdict in the Supreme Court earlier this week. In his review petition, Asif had stated that he unintentionally failed to disclose his foreign work permit in his nomination papers – the basis for the IHC decision against him. He has pleaded the court to declare the IHC judgment null and void.
On April 27, Asif was disqualified by the IHC under Article 62 (1)(f) of the constitution for failing to disclose his employment in a UAE company and the monthly salary he was receiving. The court had announced its verdict on a petition stating that Asif did not mention his foreign employment in his nomination papers.
A three-member bench headed by Justice Athar Minallah had announced the verdict and ruled that Asif was not ‘honest’ and ‘truthful’ as per the constitution. The bench had unanimously ruled that Asif was not qualified to contest the 2013 general elections from NA-110 as he did not fulfil the conditions described under Article 62(1)(f) of the constitution, read with Section 99(1)(f) of the Representation of People Act, 1976.
Published in Daily Times, May 5th 2018.
