Islamabad - A division bench (DB) of Islamabad High Court (IHC) Monday again issued notices to Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in a petition filed by Mir Israrullah Khan Zehri challenging ECP’s notification to de-notify him as senator.
The DB comprising Justice Riaz Ahmed Khan and Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui resumed the hearing in the petition and again issued notices to the ECP directing it to submit its reply on the next hearing as no one appeared before the court on behalf of the ECP.
Earlier, the court had suspended a notification of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) which had de-notified Mir Israrullah Khan Zehri, a senator from Balochistan for allegedly having a fake degree.
The petitioner had moved the court though his counsel Shah Khawar against the ECP’s notification, which had de-notified him as the member of Senate of Pakistan and made ECP through Chief Election Commissioner, Member ECP and Senate Secretariat through its secretary as respondents. Zehri’s counsel contended in the petition that degree of his client was original but the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has not recognised the issuing institute so far.
“The bachelors degree possessed by the petitioner has never been declared as a fake one, by any authority, so the order dated 01-04-2013 passed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan does not cover petitioner’s case resulting into disqualification,” maintained the petitioner.
He added that HEC in its letter on August 5, 2010 did not declare Zehri’s degree as fake but ECP had de-notified his client without giving him a chance of hearing. The apex Supreme Court of Pakistan also held that the parliamentarians should be heard before announcing any decision in fake degrees cases, the counsel argued. He said that his client had done his BBA degree and the returning officer raised no objection regarding his degree and approved his nomination papers for contesting the Senate election.
The petitioner informed the court that the ECP summoned the petitioner in September 2011 for conducting investigation in respect of his bachelor’s degree. The proceedings were conducted by the then Election Commissioner of Pakistan and three learned members while the same investigations were dropped vide dated order 26-09-2011.
He told that in the evening of 04-04-2013, the petitioner was in Gwadar, Balochistan, in connection with election activities of his party, when he was informed by his friends that there are news telecasted on the electronic media that investigations pertaining to his bachelors degree by the ECP is scheduled for 05-04-2013. On receiving this information, the petitioner immediately instructed his counsel Qazi Ghulam Dastgir, on telephone to appear on his behalf before the ECP, as it was practically impossible for the petitioner to reach Islamabad the very next morning i.e. 05-04-2013.
The petitioner said that the ECP neither accepted the memorandum provided by his counsel nor provided any opportunity to the petitioner to defend himself and passed the impugned order in as highly hasty manner, by violating the internationally recognized legal principle of audi alteram partem.
He maintained that de-notification order dated 13-4-2013 passed by the respondents is illegal, void, factually wrong and in gross misinterpretation of the judgment passed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in Rizwan Gill’s case.
He prayed before the court that the order passed by the respondents and subsequent notification de-seating the petitioner as Member Senate of Pakistan dated 13-04-2013 may be set aside after declaring them illegal, void abinitio and the petitioner be dealt with in accordance with law, in the interest of justice.
He further prayed that meanwhile the operation of impugned order and notification may graciously be suspended till the final adjudication of the main writ petition.