ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Monday directed to club all the petitions related to the eligibility of public office holders including the case of Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhary.

A single bench of Chief Justice Athar Minallah issued the directions while hearing a petition challenging the eligibility of Fawad Chaudhary alleging him for not declaring his assets.

The IHC chief justice also directed the IHC office to club all the pending petitions seeking disqualification of public office holders.

He added a joint verdict in this regard would be announced on March 9 after hearing all the parties.

He remarked that the court would issue a verdict in all the petitions and it would decide this matter once and for all.

Justice Minallah said the court abstains from interfering in cases of political nature because dragging the court into political matters causes harm to the system.

The bench further observed that declaring a public office holder ineligible also causes harm to the people of that constituency. He added that even if people elect the wrong representatives, matters relating to the eligibility and ineligibility should be decided outside the court.

Fawad Chaudhry said it is a classic case of blackmailing and the court should save us from it. He also asked the court to dismiss the petition and impose a fine on the petitioner.

The petitioner’s lawyer adopted before the court that the minister had concealed his assets while submitting his nomination papers to the ECP and he should be disqualified under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution.

He added that Fawad did not declare land he owns in Jhelum and therefore, he is not “Sadiq and Ameen”.

The petitioner, an anchor for a private TV channel, claimed in his petition that the minister concealed his assets when declaring them to the Election Commission of Pakistan and hence, should be disqualified under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution.

“That Respondent No 1 (Fawad Chauhdry), with mala-fide intention and ulterior motives, concealed his assets, cost of assets and provided wrong & false statement of his own and spouses’ assets and their cost in FORM-B (statement of Assets and Liabilities) along with Nomination Papers,” said the petition.

It prayed before the court to disqualify the minister under Article 62(1)(f) from holding public office as he had not disclosed documents containing his proprietary information.

It also requested the court to order lodging of a criminal case against him and withdrawal of all privileges granted to him as a minister.

Besides Fawad, the petitioner also made the ECP, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and others as respondents in his petition.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021