ISLAMABAD - The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Friday turned down a petition seeking disqualification of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for his alleged involvement in ‘the Mehran Bank scandal.
A single bench of IHC comprising Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui dismissed the petition by terming it as non-maintainable.
The court rejected the petition of Waheed Kamal who had challenged the PM’s qualification for violation of article 62, 63 for his alleged involvement in the Mehran Bank scandal.
The petitioner contended before the court that Nawaz Sharif has been accused in the Mehran Bank scandal case and he allegedly received Rs 3.3 million from the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to destabilize the then government of PPP.
He stated that during the period of 1990-94, the scandal was a major political development of Pakistan’s history as senior politicians and political parties were accused of receiving millions of rupees from the spy agency.
Kamal informed the court that at the time when Nawaz Sharif was filing his nomination papers to contest for prime minister’s election, the petitioner had filed the reference with the speaker National Assembly for disqualification of Nawaz Sharif but no action was taken.
Therefore, he prayed to the court to disqualify the incumbent prime minister, as he does not fulfil Article 62 & 63 for honest and sagacious person. The petitioner had also requested the court for the disqualification of MNA Jamshed Dasti for his allegedly false charges against the parliamentarians that he could not prove.
However, the single bench of IHC dismissed the petition at its preliminary hearing.
Meanwhile, in another matter, the same IHC bench overruled office objections over a petition challenging the appointment of Amir Tauseef Azam Bhatti as court auctioneer by IHC administration.
The IHC registrar office had raised objections that the petition against the administrative order of IHC was not maintainable.
However, Justice Siddiqui Friday removed the objection and ordered to fix the matter before the court in the next week for hearing.
In this matter, a former president District Bar Association (DBA) of Islamabad Niazullah Niazi has challenged appointment of Amir Tauseef Azam Bhatti as court auctioneer.
It is pertinent to mention here that on May 28, Bhatti was appointed by the IHC administration to auction properties attached by the subordinate judiciary. However, the petitioner Niazi argued before the court that the appointment was made without following any rules and procedures and moreover it was made without any competitive process.
The petitioners assailed the appointment notification while saying that the notification empowers the appointee to auction millions of rupees worth properties whereas the impugned notification did not mention any provision of law under which the appointment has been made. Therefore, they prayed to the court to declare the notification null and void.