SC constitutes larger bench to decide lifetime disqualification case

Islamabad: The Supreme Court has constituted  a larger bench to address the issue of lifetime disqualifications imposed on parliamentarians under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution.

A SC seven-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa will hear the case on January 2, 2024.

This case is of great significance, particularly in light of the lifetime disqualifications imposed on former three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and political heavyweight Jahangir Khan Tareen, the Patron-in-Chief Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party.

Nawaz Sharif, eyeing another prime ministerial bid, faced the sole remaining legal obstacle that prevented his participation in the upcoming elections on February 8 next year—his lifetime disqualification as a parliamentarian by the Supreme Court in the Panama Papers case.

Jahangir Khan Tareen, heading his party's election campaign with a whirlwind tour of the country, had been permanently disqualified for concealing a foreign company he had established to safeguard his finances.

In May 2018, a five-member bench of the Supreme Court, led by then CJP Mian Saqib Nisar, declared in a verdict that the disqualification of public representatives, namely Nawaz Sharif and Jahangir Khan Tareen, under Article 62(1)(f) was a lifelong penalty.

Article 62(1)(f) stipulates that a person is ineligible to be elected or chosen as a member of the Parliament unless they are sagacious, righteous, non-profligate, honest, and ameen, with no contrary declaration by a court of law.