IHC puts off Kh Asif’s disqualification plea hearing

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) adjourned plea seeking disqualification of Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif for possessing an Iqama (foreign work permit), till end of winter vacation. A larger bench comprising Justice Aamer Farooq, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kiyani and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb, adjourned the petition due to non-availability of the senior lawyer of the petitioner—Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Usman Dar.
However, associate lawyer of Dar’s senior counsel appeared before the bench and submitted reply (Jawabul Jawab) to the court. Khawaja Asif, earlier, through his counsel Rashdeen Nawaz, submitted reply in compliance with court orders rejecting the allegations levelled against him by the petitioner.
In his reply, the foreign minister has said that Usman Dar approached the IHC against him over the “Iqama” issue after he could not digest his 2013 election defeat and subsequent dismissal of his petition by the election tribunal and the Supreme Court, challenging the respondent’s victory. Asif said the petitioner relied to all the documents appended by him along with his nomination papers prior to the 2013 elections. He contended that Usman Dar was trying to achieve his mala fide objectives by seeking re-adjudication of the election dispute indirectly through filing of the current petition, which was contrary to the principal of law that what cannot be achieved directly cannot be achieved indirectly. He added that Usman Dar’s petition was bound to fail as the conduct, motive and intention of the petitioner were mala fide, and that the petition had been filed after four years of litigation and after having exhausted all his legal rights.
The grounds chosen by the petitioner were old facts which were available prior to the elections of 2013 and no new fact or details had been discovered which gave right to a fresh cause of action to the petitioner to invoke jurisdiction of the IHC. Asif said the petitioner had consciously concealed the material fact that he had filed an election petition and failed.