ISLAMABAD - The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Monday said that it would announce its decision on the next hearing about maintainability issue of petitions seeking disqualifications of former president Asif Ali Zardari and Federal Minister Fawad Chaudhery as members of the Parliament.

A single bench of IHC comprising Chief Justice of IHC Justice Athar Minallah conducted hearing of the petitions, seeking disqualification of Asif Ali Zardari and another petition   challenging the eligibility of Fawad Chaudhery alleging him for not declaring his assets.

The IHC bench directed the counsels for the petitioners to satisfy the court that why should it interfere in the matters related to the Parliament. The IHC chief justice remarked that why the political matter brought before the court while there were already a large number of pending cases of poor people before it.

The bench observed in petition against Fawad Chaudhery that why it should hear the case when the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was already probing the matter. Justice Athar said that he was not talking about case merit as he has yet to study it. He added that why the court should hear cases against elected representatives. He further said that when the people are electing such leaders, then why the court should interfere in it. Later, the courts deferred the hearing of the case till November 4 for further proceedings.

Petitioners seek disqualification of Asif Zardari, Fawad as members of Parliament

PTI leaders Khurram Sher Zaman Member Provincial Assembly (MPA) Sindh and the Special Assistant to Prime Minister,   Usman Dar filed two identical constitutional petitions against PPP Co-Chairman Asif 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 is neither honest 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 Ali Zardari) is not qualified to be elected or chosen as a member of the National Assembly (MNA).

Similarly, in the matter of Fawad Chaudhery, 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.

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.