Daily Times

The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition seeking disqualification of two Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders — former federal minister Makhdoom Khusru Bakhtiar, and former Punjab minister Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakht.

A three-member bench of the apex court comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsen, Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi and Justice Ayesha A Malik heard the appeal against the Islamabad High Court (IHC) verdict.

The IHC had dismissed Muhammad Ahsan Abid’s writ petition against the PTI leaders. Ahsan Abid is a voter of NA-177, Rahim Yar Khan, and had contested general elections from the same constituency. He had filed an appeal in the Supreme Court under Article 185 (3) of Constitution against the IHC verdict in December 2020. During the proceedings, Justice Ijaz reprimanded the petitioner’s counsel over his manners and asked him if the three judges sitting in front of him were useless. He asked the counsel why he would start pondering every time he was asked a question. “You do not have the manners to appear before the Supreme Court. Such a reaction is an insult to the court,” he said.

Apologising to the court, the petitioner alleged that Khusru Bakhtiar and his brother, Hashim Jawan Bakht had hidden assets. Justice Ijaz said that he (petitioner) could not provide evidence regarding concealment of assets to the Election Commission even. Justice Ayesha observed that the document on which the petitioner was relying was a complaint filed with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). She asked should the two members of the National Assembly be disqualified on the basis of a complaint.

Justice Ijaz asked the petitioner did he contest the election against Khusro Bakhtiar and how many votes did he get?

Upon this, the petitioner replied that he got about 1,000 votes while his opponent candidate Khusru Bakhtiar got 100,000 votes. After hearing the arguments, Justice Naqvi advised the petitioner to withdraw the application by saying that it would be appropriate to withdraw the application, and wait for new elections.