SC to take up lifetime disqualification case tomorrow

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday fixed a lifetime disqualification case for hearing, ARY News reported.

A seven-member larger bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Qazi Faez Isa will take up the case of lifetime disqualification of lawmakers tomorrow (Tuesday).

Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Amin-Ud-Din Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Musarrat Hilali will be the other members of the bench.

The SC bench will take up the case tomorrow at 11 in the morning.

Last week, the Supreme Court (SC) released an advertisement to seek candidates’ input before taking up the lifetime disqualification matter of lawmakers.

The advertisement released in the different newspapers invited inputs from the candidates willing to contest general elections in the matter of lifetime disqualification.

“Interested candidates can submit detailed written replies to SC if they want,” the ad read.

The lifetime disqualification matter

In 2018, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court unanimously held that disqualification handed down under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution is for life.

Under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution of Pakistan, which sets the precondition for a member of parliament to be ‘sadiq and ameen’ (honest and righteous), former prime minister and PMLN chief Nawaz Sharif was disqualified by the SC bench on July 28, 2017, in references about the Panama Papers.

Similarly, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder was also disqualified under the same article in the Toshakhana case earlier this year.

However, in June, the then-coalition government passed an amendment to the Elections Act 2017, which limited the disqualification of lawmakers to five years.