F.P. Report
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday served notices to the Attorney General of Pakistan and advocate generals of all provinces in a matter pertaining to lifetime disqualifications.
A three-member SC bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa heard the disqualification case of JUI-F’s ex-MPA Meer Badshah Khan Qaisrani. During the course of proceedings, the bench took notice on the contradiction between the apex court’s verdict on lifetime disqualification and amendments in the Election Act 2017, and sent the matter to the judges committee to fix the case before a larger bench.
The CJP remarked that no one had challenged the amendments in the Election Act. In the elections are on, returning officers, election tribunals and courts would be in a quandary whether to rely on the Election Act or the SC judgment, he observed.
He said that the Constitution was silent on the period of disqualification under Article 62(1)(F) and Article 63(1)(G), which disqualified a parliamentarian for 5 years while Article 63(1)(H) disqualified for three years for moral offences. CJP Isa remarked that the real disqualification was under Article 63. The person who destroyed Pakistan should not enter politics again, but the disqualification on that count was five years.
“The language of the Constitution has to be looked at as everything is not clearly stated. What is not clear in the Constitution can be interpreted by the Supreme Court,” he added. The court that the case would be heard in January 2024 but it could not be used as a pretext to delay the general elections.
The court also instructed to publish the notice of the case in two national English newspapers. Any political party could become a respondent in the case. The court also instructed to send the order copy of it to Election Commission of Pakistan. Earlier, during the hearing, the chief justice inquired that why Qaisrani was disqualified.
To this, this petitioner’s lawyer said that his client was disqualified in 2007 on the charge of holding a fake degree but the high court allowed him to contest elections in 2018 as he submitted degree of matriculation. He said that the lifetime disqualification of his client still sustained. The further hearing of the case was then adjourned.
