Daily Times

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senior leader and former foreign minister Khawaja Asif on Wednesday filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the Islamabad High Court (IHC) verdict disqualifying him as member of parliament for life.

On April 26, 2018, the IHC had disqualified Khawaja Asif as lawmaker under Article 62(1)(f) of the constitution for not disclosing his employment in a UAE company as an occupation as well as the monthly salary he was drawing.

The court had ruled that Khawaja Asif was not qualified to contest the general election of 2013 from NA-110 as he did not fulfill the conditions described under Article 62(1)(f) of the constitution read with Section 99(1)(f) of the Act of 1976. In his petition, Khawaja Asif has contended that he had not concealed his foreign bank account intentionally while submitting his nomination forms for the 2013 general elections. He also contended that the IHC declared the mistake ‘dishonesty’ without any evidence, which was against the norms of justice.

The petitioner requested the apex court to declare the IHC verdict null and void and that the notification issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan should be withdrawn.

He submitted that he had already declared the bank account and the iqama before the petition against him was filed, adding that the amount kept by him in the bank account equated to only 0.5 per cent value of his declared assets.

He contended that the IHC did not consider the local and the UAE laws while handing down the judgment, thus the verdict was based on assumptions. He stated that he unintentionally failed to disclose his foreign work permit in his nomination papers, however IHC disqualified him on this unintentional omission.

He has prayed the apex court to declare the IHC verdict null and void and fix his petition for hearing. The IHC judgment primarily relied upon the recent Supreme Court verdicts, which disqualified former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) senior leader Jahangir Tareen.

A subsequent judgment of the apex court declared that the disqualification was for life.

Published in Daily Times, May 3^rd 2018.