ISLAMABAD-The Islamabad High Court (IHC) will Monday (today) conduct hearing in a petition seeking disqualification of Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhary.
A single bench of IHC comprising Chief Justice of IHC Justice Athar Minallah will conduct hearing of the petition challenging the eligibility of Fawad Chaudhary alleging him for not declaring his assets.
Previously, the IHC bench had directed both the parties to submit their written replies in this matter after Fawad Chaudhary had adopted that anchor-person Sami Ibrahim conducted programmes against him, aired pictures of his wife and daughter, and is running a campaign against him on social media.
The federal minister added that he was abused during the programme and the case should be concluded by imposing a fine to put an end to the blackmailing.
On the other hand, the petitioner maintained that Fawad slapped him in front of Director General (DG) Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Bashir Memon and no FIR was lodged yet against the federal minister.
The IHC chief justice remarked that it is inappropriate to conduct such programmes and directed the federal minister to create a forum in the Parliament to address such issues.
He added that the Parliament should itself hold its accountability instead of bringing the matter to courts. Petitioner’s lawyer adopted before the court that the minister had concealed his assets while submitting his nomination papers to the ECP and he should be disqualified under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution. He added that Fawad did not declare the land he owns in Jhelum and therefore, he is not Sadiq and Ameen. The petitioner, an anchor for a private TV channel, claimed in his petition that the minister concealed his assets when declaring them to the Election Commission of Pakistan and hence, should be disqualified under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution.
“That Respondent No 1 (Fawad Chauhdry), with mala-fide intention and ulterior motives, concealed his assets, cost of assets and provided wrong and false statement of his own and spouses’ assets and their cost in FORM-B (statement of Assets and Liabilities) along with nomination papers,” said the petition. It prayed to the court to disqualify the minister under Article 62 (1) (f) from holding public office as he had not disclosed documents containing his proprietary information. It also requested the court to order lodging of a criminal case against him and withdrawal of all privileges granted to him as a minister. Besides Fawad, the petitioner also made the ECP, the Federal Investigation Agency and others as respondents in his petition.