ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) is all set to hear the lifetime disqualification case today (Tuesday).
A seven-member larger bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Qazi Faez Isa will take up the case of lifetime disqualification of lawmakers. Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Ameen-u-din, Justice Jamal Mandokhail, and Justice Musarrat Halali will be the other members of the bench.
The court will take up the case at 11am. Last week, the Supreme Court (SC) had released an advertisement to seek candidates and other’s input before taking up the lifetime disqualification case.
The ad invited inputs from the candidates willing to contest general elections in the matter. “Interested candidates can submit detailed written replies to SC if they want,” the ad read.
In 2018, a five-member bench of the top 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 PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif was disqualified by the Supreme Court bench on July 28, 2017, in the Panama Papers reference.
However, in June last year, the then PDM government passed an amendment to the Elections Act 2017, which limited the disqualification of lawmakers to five years just to stir a debate if a simple legislation could overrule a court ruling.
