n Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Friday reserved its judgment in the hearing of a key case that would settle the issue of lifetime disqualification of some leading politicians, including former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan.
The verdict is expected to determine once and for all the controversy around the period of disqualification under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution and the Elections Act 2017.
A 2018 judgment by a five-member bench of the apex court had declared that disqualification under Article 62(1)(f) was for life, but changes made in the Elections Act 2017 on June 26, 2023, by a coalition government led by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) restricted it to a five-year term only.
A seven-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, conducted the hearing on Friday.
During the hearing, the chief justice remarked that the Supreme Court verdict on lifetime disqualification and the amendments to the Elections Act 2017 could not co-exist. He also stated that discrepancies in the apex court’s interpretation and the law could result in “confusion” in the upcoming general elections.
At the hearing’s conclusion, the chief justice said a short order would be issued without specifying a time for its announcement.
“We will try to come up with a shorter order as soon as possible. Probably not today, but it will be very soon, God willing,” he said.
During the hearing, which spanned several days, the court heard many lawyers, garnering their views on the duration of disqualification.
The remarks made by the chief justice and some other judges indicated they were not comfortable with the lifelong ban on convicted politicians, the Pakistani media reported.
However, it was not clear if the limit of disqualification should be imposed through a court order or an amendment to the Constitution.
Most of the arguments were in favour of nullifying the concept of the lifelong ban and limiting it to a five-year term. However, the chief justice repeatedly said that he also wanted to hear arguments supporting lifelong disqualification and asked lawyers to come forward.
Sharif, former prime minister and also a frontrunner for the fourth term in the February 8 general elections, was disqualified in the Panama Papers case in 2017. His rival Imran Khan, who was disqualified in the Toshakhana corruption case last year, also was hit by the same law.
However, Sharif got a kind of relief when his party-led government amended the election laws last year to limit the disqualification to five years, which allowed him to file nomination papers for the upcoming elections.
The controversy was not over as his candidature has been challenged as the interpretation of Article 62 (1) (f) clashed with the changes made in the Elections Act 2017. The outcome of the hearing would decide the future for both Sharif and Khan, as well as many other politicians.
Seventy-four-year-old Sharif’s case was final until the period of disqualification was reduced. However, 71-year-old Khan’s disqualification has not attained finality, and his appeal against it is still pending.
Incarcerated Khan’s nomination papers for the February 8 general elections were rejected on December 30 based on disqualification due to his conviction in the offence of “moral turpitude” in a corruption case and other reasons, a government official had reasoned.
Earlier, the issue came into the focus of the Supreme Court last month during the hearing of a petition of a politician from Dera Ghazi Khan, Badshah Khan Qaisarani, who was disqualified for producing a fake graduation degree.
