Sharifs' electoral eligibility: Supreme Court provided material maligning judiciary

The Supreme Court bench hearing Sharif brothers' electoral eligibility cases on Monday was provided with material regarding their (Sharifs') role in maligning the judiciary. Advocate Ahmed Raza Qasuri, counsel for Khurram Shah and Noor Elahi, presented press clippings and DVDs of Sharif brothers speeches, interviews and press conferences before the court.
A three-member bench of the apex court comprising Justice Moosa K Leghari, Justice Sakhi Hussain Bokhari and Justice Sheikh Hakim Ali, called for Attorney General to appear before the court on Tuesday (today).
Lahore High Court (LHC) had disqualified Nawaz Sharif from contesting the by-elections and had referred the matter regarding candidature of Shahbaz Sharif to Election Commission. Federation had filed a petition against the LHC order of June 23, 2008 which disqualified Nawaz Sharif.
Meanwhile, the proposer and seconder of Nawaz Sharif filed an application, urging the bench to reuse itself from the hearing and refer the matter to Chief Justice for constitution of a larger bench, comprising judges who did not take oath under the PCO on November 3, 2007 but are part of the court at present.
Advocate Ahmed Raza Qasuri said that Sharif brothers were disqualified on the role against judiciary and default, therefore, they were not eligible to contest the elections.
Qasuri referred to the split decision of the tribunal and cited the remarks of Justice Hafiz Tariq Naseem (who gave the decision against Sharifs) that even if all grounds of disqualification are ignored, their role in maligning the judiciary is enough to be declared as disqualified. Sharifs did not appear before the court to address the allegations levelled against them, therefore the court had no option except that, he added.
While talking about the schedule of by-elections, he said that there is a breach of Article 224 of the constitution by the Election Commission. He said according to Article 224, the Election Commission is bound to hold the by-election within 60 days from the first meeting of the assembly. The EC issued 3 notifications for schedule of the elections, which means it was twice changed.
While deliberating upon the 'source' which can lay information before the tribunal regarding disqualification of a candidate he said, the source can be a person as well as any corporate entity.
Qasuri said that Article 62 of the constitution lays 9 qualifications and Article 63 gives 19 disqualification's. Similarly Article 63(a) gives 2 disqualification's and Section 99 of Representation of People's Act 1976 describe 29 disqualification's.
The EC had issued notification for Shahbaz Sharif for being elected as member of Provincial Assembly from PP-48 on June 3, 2008 and he took oath on June 6, 2008, which shows that everything was done in hurry. Khurram Shah had filed a petition asking for disqualification of Shahbaz Sharif on June 4, 2008. The petition had enumerated all possible disqualification's according to above mentioned articles, he added.
He said that Shahbaz Sharif had an inherent disqualification from contesting the elections and even was not able to file the nomination papers. Meanwhile, Shahid Orakzai filed a constitutional petition under Artic1e 86-A of the constitution, seeking transfer of case from Lahore High Court to Islamabad High Court.
Orakzai, had filed an application before the LHC to question the participation of two provincial ministers, Mian Mujtaba Shuujaur Rehman and Rana Sanaullah as well as Shahbaz Sharif in by-elections. The applicant has alleged that the matter before the LHC was fixed for June 23, 2008, but could not be taken up till today, adding petition was purposely dumped.