KARACHI - Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday rejected a one-page reply by the provincial election commission on identical petitions pertaining disqualification of Faryal Talpur and other Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leaders.

A division bench headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar conducted hearing on different identical petitions wherein a representative of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) submitted a combined report.

The bench expressed annoyance on the commission for not submitting a proper reply against the four PPP parliamentarians for allegedly holding dual nationalities and iqamas, and argued that the required information and details were not provided in the report, thus the reply was rejected.

The court gave last chance to the election commission to submit a compiled report till October, 9. The identical petitions have been filed to disqualify PPP leaders including Faryal Talpur, Manzoor Wasan, Nasir Hussain Shah, Sohail Anwar Siyal and others for allegedly holding work permit (Iqama) of a foreign country.

The petitions contended that Iqama holders are not able to hold public offices, the court was also pleaded to restrain the respondents for taking part in the presidential elections.

Earlier, the petitioners pleaded the court to restrain Faryal Talpur and others from taking oath until the ECP’s response was received.

The petitioners maintained that Talpur had set up an offshore company in Dubai in 2002 under the name of Sahibzadi Ayesha. “Talpur transferred large sums of money to the company, the details of which were not submitted to the commission,” the petition stated, adding that the PPP leader has also not declared her iqama.

Talpur does not qualify as ‘saadiq and amin’ as per the affidavit submitted to the ECP, the petition reads, adding that Talpur should be disqualified from becoming an assembly member.

A plea was filed to disqualify former home minster Soahil Anwar Siyal for allegedly holding iqama, that was filed by his political rival, Allah Bux Unnar.

A PTI leader from Sukkar Mobeen Ahmed Jatoi moved to the court seeking disqualification of Manzoor Wasan for holding any public office. He claimed in his petition that Wasan was a shareholder in Dubai’s company but did not mention it to the election commission and pleaded to disqualify him for not declaring his Iqama.

Another identification petition was filed by Mir Panal Talpur seeking the disqualification of Nasir Shah, the petitioner submitted that the representative of the PPP is holding Iqama, the applicant stated in his plea against Nasir Shah that he is holding Iqama of UAE from 2009, but did not mentioned it in his nomination papers, he is not ‘sadiq and ameen’.

The petitioner started in his plea that being employed by a foreign company and being a full-time salaried employee, the minister at the same time was also holding a high office and constituted a material, patent and permanent conflict of interest.