The Supreme Court nullified proceedings and conviction against the MNAs, MPAs and senators who were disqualified in view of the apex court September 20, 2012 order for holding dual nationality. "Any proceedings at whatever stage and any convictions whether or not implemented shall immediately and forthwith stand quashed, recalled and rendered null and void for all intents and purposes as if the same had never been initiated/passed/implemented," said 13-page judgment of the Supreme Court.
A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, and comprising Justice Umar Atta Bandial and Justice Ijazul Ahmed on May 2, 2018 after hearing the arguments of the disqualified parliamentarians had reserved the judgment, which was announced on Friday. Dr Ahmed Ali Shah, Farah Naz Isfahani, Amna Butter, Begum Shehnaz Sheikh, Dr Muhammad Ashraf Chohan, Muhammad Jamil Malik and Ghulam Mujtaba Rai had filed the review petitions against the apex court order dated 20.09.2012. Through this judgment they and others were declared to be disqualified from being members of the Parliament/provincial assemblies for holding dual citizenship.
The review judgment authored by Justice Ijazul Ahsan said: "All findings recorded in the order dated 20.09.2012 relating to disqualification of the members of the Parliament (Majlis-e-Shoora)/provincial assemblies in terms of Article 63(1)(c) of the Constitution shall remain intact, unchanged, unmodified and in full force."
The judgment said the finding that the petitioners appeared to be guilty of corrupt practices in terms of Section 78 of the RoPA and the direction to the Election Commission to institute proceedings against them under Section 82 of the RoPA read with Sections 193, 196, 197, 198 & 199, PPC are hereby recalled.
The direction of this court to the extent of refund of monetary benefits drawn by the petitioners for the periods during which they occupied public offices and had drawn their emoluments from the public exchequer including monthly remunerations, TA/DA, facilities of accommodation along with other perks to be calculated in terms of money by the secretaries of the Senate of Pakistan, National Assembly and the Provincial Assemblies stand modified to the extent that each petitioner notwithstanding the amount actually received by him/her in the aforesaid manner shall deposit a token sum of Rs 500,000 within a period of 30 days from the date of this order with the secretaries of the Senate of Pakistan, National Assembly and the provincial assemblies as the case may be.
Justice Ijaz wrote that the direction [in 20-09-2012 order] issued for criminal prosecution for corrupt practices under the provisions of RoPA and Pakistan Penal Code and return of salaries and perquisites received by the petitioners many years ago has appeared to be rather harsh in the peculiar and specific facts and circumstances of these cases.
The secretaries Senate, National Assembly and the provincial assemblies were ordered to file the compliance report in this regard in the SC Registrar for their perusal in the chambers. The court held that except to the extent of criminal proceedings and returning of emoluments, the Supreme Court order dated 20.09.2012 shall remain intact and in full force for all intents and purposes.
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