The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday set hearing of a petition seeking disqualification of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari on accusations of concealing his assets in New York.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmaker Khurram Sher Zaman and the incumbent Special Adviser to the Prime Minister on Youth Affairs Usman Dar on Monday had filed the petition.
However, the court had ordered the petitioners to satisfy that the matter was related to ‘public interest’ and remove certain reservations before proceedings of the case.
Moreover, Justice Athar Minallah expressed annoyance over the issue with remarks that “why the court is being approached on political matters while the concerned authority is the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)”
“There are already many cases pending in the court,” he stated, adding that it was time to strengthen the parliament that could form a committee to resolve the issue.
“This is the time when the Parliament should be strengthened. The Parliament should form a special committee to overlook this matter,” the IHC CJ added.
“Political fights should be fought in political forums or the Parliament,” he further added.
Dar’s lawyer then said, “Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is not the relevant forum for disqualification under Article 62(1)(f). We have the Sindh High Court (SHC) order that ECP is not the authorized forum in this case.”
The petition maintained that the former president was elected from constituency NA-213, and his property in New York, US, was not declared in the asset details submitted with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
The petition pleaded with the court to disqualify Zardari from holding membership of the National Assembly for not being ‘Sadiq’ and ‘Amin’ under Article 62 (1)(f) of the Constitution.