ISLAMABAD - A single bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) Monday sent Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Usman Dar’s petition seeking disqualification of Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif for concealing his Iqama, to the IHC chief justice to form a larger bench in this matter.

A single bench of the IHC comprising Justice Aamer Farooq conducted hearing of the petition moved by Dar, and reserved the verdict after hearing his arguments.

Later, he announced the verdict saying the matter was sent to the chief justice of the IHC, Justice Muhammad Anwar Khan to form a larger bench to hear the petition.

The PTI leader has sought disqualification of the federal minister for foreign affairs on the grounds that Asif concealed the facts that he was an Iqama holder, legal adviser of a company in the UAE and his recent labour card was issued on June 29, 2017. Dar’s petition has been moved through Advocate Sikandar Bashir. Khawaja Asif, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the secretary National Assembly have been nominated as respondents in the petition.

Dar stated that he was a candidate for National Assembly seat in the 2013 general elections from NA-110 Sialkot on PTI ticket.

Bashir states in the petition that on the basis of the information and facts that have recently become known to the petitioner and the documents bearing signatures and photographs of the Respondent No 1 available with him, he considered it his national duty and lawful obligation to institute a petition under Article 199(1)(b)(ii) against the Respondent No 1 as, it is submitted, he is not entitled to hold the office of the MNA nor that of the federal minister as he is disqualified under the Constitution.

Therefore, Dar requested the court to initiate proceedings in this regard requiring the respondent to explain, that under what authority of law he was holding public office.

In his petition, Dar said that Asif was a full-time employee of an Abu Dhabi-based company Int. Mech & Elec Co. LLC (IMECL) and was continuously employed since July 2, 2011.

The petitioner has attached some documents with the petition on the basis of which he claimed that Asif remained full-time salaried employee of the company on various positions including as “legal adviser” and as “special adviser”.

The petitioner said that against his employment, Asif was entitled to receive 35,000 UAE Dirhams as salary and 15,000 AED as monthly allowances that is being received and currently receivable being an MNA as well as foreign minister of the country.

He contended that Asif never disclosed this source of income in Pakistan consequently he was no more “Sadiq” and “Ameen”.

Before his recent employment Asif had also been an Iqama holder previously from May 9, 2007 till May 8, 2010, the petition states.

The UAE Ministry of Labour also issued “Labour Card” to Asif on June 29, 2017 whose validity is till June 28, 2019.

In his nomination papers for 2013 general elections, Asif mentioned his occupation as a businessman, while the employment contract reveals another story, the petition said.

He argued that the respondent intentionally concealed this information from the public, from the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in his tax returns, and this was done in violation of the Representation of People Act (ROPA) 1976.

The petitioner said Asif had disclosed in his wealth statement an amount of Rs6,820,964 as foreign remittance but that cannot be related, as Asif did not mention this amount as salary.

Therefore, the PTI leader prayed before the court to disqualify Asif as Member of National Assembly under Article 62 and ROPA 1976.