Sh Rashid may face disqualification

ISLAMABAD: Six weeks have passed since the Supreme Court reserved its judgment on a petition seeking disqualification of Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rashid.

A bench reserved its decision on March 20 to be announced later. The impending judgment on a slew of pleas seeking interpretation of Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution to determine the time period of ineligibility of persons disqualified under this provision had taken two months to be pronounced. Sheikh Rashid’s qualification as a member of the National Assembly was challenged by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Shakil Awan, who had been defeated in the 2013 general elections by him.

The AML chief declared that he would open-heartedly accept even an adverse ruling without ifs and buts or making any noise. This is the standard assertion politicians of all hue and colour make before verdicts are handed. In the case of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Jehangir Tareen, his party had made a similar announcement but when the decision had come, it had expressed reservations.

Sheikh Rashid’s detractors, who are in abundance because of his peculiar politics against the elected governments and defiant politicians, keenly await the judgment in his case. He has been instrumental in creating woes for certain political figures by going to superior courts and ridiculing them everywhere. He made repeated attempts but in vain to rope in Prime Minister Shahid Khawan Abbasi in the LNG deal with Qatar. He once agitated it in the Supreme Court, which dismissed his plea. Subsequently, he went to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) where the matter had headed to nowhere for having no substance.

Once Sheikh Rashid publicly feigned that he has gone to Qatar (in fact, he had not done so) and collected the documents about the LNG deal that he would disclose. However, all this turned out to be a humbug as he got nothing from abroad and on his return just reiterated his allegation of a massive corruption against Abbasi. If Sheikh Rashid was disqualified, his politics would be over for good. Simultaneously, his one-man AML, which is a political nonentity from day one, will become history. He has no party hierarchy to fall back on, and structure to carry forward his “mission”.

It will be seen whether the Panama verdict against ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif disqualifying him for holding “Iqama” and for not withdrawing the salary from his son’s Dubai-based company will be relied upon while deciding the petition against Sheikh Rashid, who conceded during proceedings concealment of some assets in his nomination papers but asserted that it was not deliberate but unintentional. If he was ousted for any mistake, deliberate or unintentional, he too would stand disqualified for life as per the previous apex court judgment on Article 62(1)(f), which has already hit Nawaz Sharif, Tareen, Khawaja M Asif and some others, who were declared ineligible under this provision for good.

Shakil Awan claimed that Sheikh Rashid mis-declared his assets in his candidacy papers and conceded it during proceedings as well. It is mandatory to accurately declare all assets before contesting elections. The AML chief’s counsel contended that his client did not hide anything but owned the mistake in valuing the assets. Justice Qazi Faez Isa remarked that according to the petitioner, whatever the error, the lawmaker should be disqualified.

The question is whether a legislator stands disqualified if it is proved that he or she committed an error while filling the candidacy papers or his assets, observed Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, who headed the bench.

“If this is the case, the Panama case was about the London flats but the prime minister was disqualified over an Iqama,” Justice Qazi Faez Isa observed, and asked where in the Panama judgment it was declared that whatever the mistake, the punishment should be disqualification.