ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Supreme Court (SC) has fixed a lifetime disqualification case for hearing on Tuesday (January 2), with a little over a month to go before the country heads to general elections.
A seven-member larger bench, led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Qazi Faez Isa, will hear the matter of lifetime disqualification of lawmakers. The bench includes Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Amin-Ud-Din Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, and Justice Musarrat Hilali. The hearing is slated for 11 a.m. tomorrow.
Last week, the SC released an advertisement seeking input from candidates before addressing the matter of lifetime disqualification.
SC Invites Candidate Input in Lifetime Disqualification Case
Candidates intending to participate in general elections were invited to submit detailed written responses to the SC regarding the lifetime disqualification matter.
A five-judge SC bench in 2018 unanimously ruled that disqualification under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution is for life.
Article 62(1)(f) sets the prerequisite for a member of parliament to be ‘sadiq and ameen’ (honest and righteous).
In 2017, the SC disqualified former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif under this article in the Panama Papers case. Similarly, the founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) faced disqualification under the same article in the Toshakhana case earlier this year.
However, in June last year, the then-coalition government passed an amendment to the Elections Act 2017, restricting the disqualification of lawmakers to a maximum of five years.
