Pakistan’s top court to expedite case on lawmakers’ lifetime disqualification ahead of national polls

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan said on Tuesday it wanted to expeditiously conclude its proceedings in a case related to the electoral disqualifications of lawmakers for life under Article 62(1)(f) of the constitution as previously directed by it or uphold a recent amendment to reduce the ineligibility to five years.
The country’s top court ruled in April 2018 that lawmakers disqualified under the said constitutional provision would be unable to contest elections for the rest of their lives. However, the government passed the Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2023, last year in June, limiting the disqualification period for five years.
A seven-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, was quoted as saying by Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper he wanted to settle the issue quickly to prevent any “confusion” faced by returning officers currently scrutinizing the nomination papers of candidates for the upcoming national polls.
The chief justice also questioned the idea of disqualifying aspiring election candidates on the basis of their character since the constitutional provision requires a candidate to be “honest and righteous.”
“According to Islamic teachings, no one can be said to have an exemplary character,” he said.
“We all sin and therefore pray for forgiveness when someone dies,” he continued. “If all these conditions [specified in the constitutional provision] were present earlier, even [the founder of Pakistan] Quaid-i-Azam [Mohammad Ali Jinnah] would have been disqualified.”
Chief Justice Isa noted the said constitutional provision was introduced by former military ruler, General Ziaul Haq, adding he had undermined the supreme document of the country by ousting a democratic government and taking over the political power of the country.
He said that he wanted to conclude the case on Jan. 11 before adjourning the hearing until Jan. 4.
If the court decides that the disqualification should be for a period of five years, it would pave the way for the electoral return of former three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
Sharif was convicted in 2018 on corruption charges and sentenced to seven years in jail. In 2019, however, a Pakistani court granted medical bail to him for treatment in London after his health was said to have deteriorated in prison.
The former prime minister, who heads the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), returned in October 2023 to lead his party in the upcoming general elections, scheduled to be held on February 8. Last week, Pakistan’s election regulator accepted Sharif’s nomination papers for the upcoming polls.