High court moved against home minister for concealing Iqama

The Sindh High Court has issued notices to Home Minister Sohail Anwar Khan Siyal, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and others regarding a petition seeking Siyal's disqualification for concealing his United Arab Emirates (UAE) Iqama (work permit) in assets declaration before the ECP.

Petitioner Allah Bux submitted that he was a registered voter of the provincial assembly constituency PS-35 in Larkana from where Siyal, a Pakistan Peoples Party leader and home minister, was declared as the returned candidate in a by-election in 2014.

The petitioner submitted that Siyal presented an Iqama issued in his name from the UAE as a sales consultant in a private company, along with other documents, before the election commission in his nomination papers, but failed to disclose his assets and liabilities.

The petitioner’s counsel Khawaja Shamsul Islam submitted that after concealment of the Iqama, the home minister was neither righteous nor sagacious in light of Article 63 of the Constitution and thereby liable to be disqualified from holding public office. The court was requested to direct the election commission to de-notify the home minister from being a member of parliament over his concealment of the Iqama.

The SHC’s division bench headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar, after preliminary hearing of the petition, issued notices to Khan, ECP and others and called for their comments on June 5.

Separately, SHC granted protective bail to former chief minister Liaquat Ali Jatoi in a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) corruption case.

Jatoi, also a former federal minister, was named as co-accused by NAB in a corruption reference pertaining to the misuse of authority and causing losses to the national exchequer. According to NAB, former prime minister Shaukat Aziz, former officials of the Ministry of Water and Power and Alternative Energy Development Board along with Jatoi have been booked for illegally appointing Engineer Dr Basharat Hassan Bashir as a consultant as it has led to a loss of nearly Rs21.6 million to the national exchequer.

Jatoi’s counsel submitted that he has provided details with regard to Bashir’s appointment, which was approved by the board and that Jatoi has nothing to do with his appointment. He expressed apprehension over his arrest by NAB authorities and sought protective bail to appear before a trial court. The court issued notices to NAB and others for June 12 and granted protective pre-arrest bail to the petitioner with a guarantee of Rs1 million.