ISLAMABAD - The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday sought opinion of the Chairman Senate and Speaker National Assembly in petitions seeking disqualification of former president Asif Ali Zardari and Federal Minister Fawad Chaudhary as members of the Parliament. 

A single bench of IHC comprising Chief Justice of IHC Justice Athar Minallah sought opinion from Chairman Senate and NA Speaker while hearing petitions filed by Special Assistant to PM on Youth Affairs Usman Dar and PTI MPA from Karachi Khurram Sher Zaman seeking disqualification of Asif Ali Zardari and another petition challenging eligibility of Fawad Chaudhary alleging him for not declaring his assets. 

The court also summoned the Attorney General of Pakistan on next hearing for assistance in this regard besides directing petitioner PTI’s leader Khurram Sher Zaman’s lawyer to give references of top courts’ verdicts and satisfy the court regarding maintainability of the case and on the point that why the court should interfere in such matter. 

At this, the petitioner’s lawyer submitted documents in support of his case against Zardari. The IHC bench remarked that it had previously disqualified a former foreign minister and his constituency remained vacant for representation for a long time. 

The IHC Chief Justice said that there were several parliamentary committees including Public Accounts Committee (PAC) which could view such matters. The petitioner’s counsel said that the court had served notices to the respondents in this case and sought comments. 

The court said that only a voter of relevant constituency could challenge eligibility of a public representative under the ECP Act. The lawyer said that election tribunal could disqualify any representative before the election on violation of law who could file appeal before the appellant tribunal in given time. 

However, he said that after elections, any candidate could move Supreme Court if declared disqualified. 

Justice Athar remarked that this court had raised the question that why it should interfere in such matters when the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) itself could see this. He added that the elected members were stakeholders of parliamentary system and such matters could damage public’s trust on judiciary.

The lawyer said that the court had served notices to respondents on April 4, 2019 in this petition but no comments were received yet. The court asked the lawyer to first satisfy the bench regarding maintainability of the case. 

Justice Athar said that it was responsibility of the Parliament to stop involvements of courts in such matters. The lawyer said that the top court had decided Khawaja Asif case on merit but it did not declare the case as beyond court’s jurisdiction. 

The bench said that it would sought opinion from Chairman Senate and the Speaker NA and adjourned the cases till April 6. 

PTI leaders Khurram Sher Zaman, MPA Sindh, and Usman Dar filed two identical constitutional petitions against PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari under Article 184(3) of Constitution through their counsel Advocate Sikandar Bashir Mohmand and cited Asif Ali Zardari, Member National Assembly (MNA), Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and Secretary National Assembly as respondents. 

In their petition, they contended that Asif Zardari was neither sadiq nor ameen nor righteous nor sagacious in terms of Article 62(1) (f) of the Constitution and also Section 231 of the Election Act. Therefore Respondent No1 (Asif Zardari) was not qualified to be elected or chosen as a Member of the National Assembly (MNA). 

The petitioners prayed to the court to hold and declare that PPP co-chairman as permanently disqualified from being and shall forthwith cease to be MNA. They requested the court to declare that Zardari was not qualified to be elected or chosen or to officiate as or exercise powers of the ‘Party Head’ within the meaning of Article 63A of the Constitution. 

Similarly, in the matter of Fawad Chaudhary, 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 & false statement of his own and spouse’s 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 (FIA) and others as respondents in his petition.