Sharif files appeals in Supreme Court against disqualification verdict

ISLAMABAD: Disqualified prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday approached the Supreme Court seeking review of its verdict in the Pamanagate case, ARY News reported.

On July 28, a bench of the apex court had disqualified Sharif for concealing his salary from a Dubai-based company.

Advocate Khuwaja Haris, the counsel of Nawaz Sharif, filed 34-page long three appeals in reply to the petitions filed by Imran Khan, Sheikh Rashid and Sirjul Haq, requesting the court to review its judgement. He contended that he had not hid his salary in his nomination papers for the 2013 polls – the ground on which he was disqualified for not being honest and trustworthy.

Under Article 188 of the Constitution, Sharif cannot be disqualified without a trial, petitions said.

A five-judge Supreme Court bench had disqualified Nawaz Sharif in a unanimous verdict in the Panamagate case, thus cutting short his third stint in power.

Soon after the SC judgement, the PM House issued a terse statement saying that Nawaz Sharif, despite having reservations on the SC’s verdict, has stepped down from his post as the premier.

Sharif served as prime minister twice in the 1990s but failed to complete his tenure. In his second term he was ousted in October 1999 coup leading to a decade of exile. He won a third term as prime minister in 2013 general election.

The five judges bench headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, announced the judgement declaring Sharif disqualified as prime minister of the country. Justice Khosa in the first phase of the hearing of the case had given a dissenting note in the April 20 judgment with a quote from Mario Puzo’s novel The Godfather and declared Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ‘disqualified’ for not being honest to the nation. His opinion in the first verdict was also endorsed by another member of the bench Justice Gulzar Ahmed.

But three other judges of the bench – Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Ijazul Ahsan – preferred giving prime minister and his children another opportunity to explain their position before forming the Joint Investigation Team.