KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday directed the federal and provincial law officers to argue on the maintainability of petitions seeking disqualification of former lawmakers belonging to the Pakistan Peoples Party.

A two-judge bench, headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, sought arguments from the deputy attorney general and the advocate general, Sindh, in the light of the judgements of the Supreme Court in cases relating to disqualification of the PPP’s Rehman Malik and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s Khawaja Asif.

The pleas were fixed for hearing on June 12.

SHC to hear arguments on maintainability of the petitions on June 12

The petitions were filed by Moazzam Abbasi, Muhammad Zubair, Mir Punhal Khan Talpur and Mumtaz Ali Chandio, who had challenged the eligibility of former PPP MNA Faryal Talpur, former MPAs Nasir Hussain Shah, Sohail Anwar Siyal, Manzoor Wasan and Mir Nawab Ghaibi Sardar Khan Chandio to contest the upcoming general polls.

Mr Abbasi, through his counsel Khawaja Shams-ul-Islam, submitted that Ms Talpur, a sister of former president Asif Ali Zardari, had set up a company in the name of her daughter in Dubai in 2002, but she concealed the details of the money transferred to Dubai from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

The petitioner maintained that Ms Talpur was holding an iqama (work permit) of the United Arab Emirates and did not disclose it in her nomination papers.

Mr Talpur challenged the candidature of the ex-MPA Manzoor Wassan, arguing that he also possessed an iqama, thus he was not eligible to take part in the upcoming general elections.

Mr Chandio, through his counsel Mureed Ali Shah, submitted that Sardar Khan Chandio also possessed an iqama but he concealed the details of the money transferred abroad from the ECP.

However, respondent Chandio’s counsel Makhdoom Ali Khan contended that the plea was not maintainable since the tenure of his client as a lawmaker had already ended.

He added that the petitioner might approach the ECP if he had any complaint against the former lawmaker.

The petitioners’ counsel argued that the concealment of facts tantamount to violation of Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution read with Sections 99(I)(f) of the Representation of People Act 1976 and pleaded for disqualification of the former PPP parliamentarians.

The bench members inquired from the lawyers as to what was the status of their pleas following the judgement recently passed by the Supreme Court in a case relating to disqualification of the PML-N leader Khawaja Asif.

Punhal Khan’s lawyer maintained that the case of Mr Wassan’s disqualification for possessing an iqama was different from that of Khawaja Asif.

The bench issued notices to the deputy attorney general and the advocate general to come prepared to argue on the maintainability of the petitions on June 12.

It further asked them to come prepared to argue on the matter in the light of the judgements passed by the apex court in the cases of disqualification of the former PPP leader Rehman Malik and PML-N’s Khawaja Asif.

Replies sought on plea for division of Sindh

Another two-judge bench, headed by Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, sought replies from the federal and provincial governments on a petition seeking division of the Sindh province into seven states or administrative units, besides Karachi as an autonomous state.

Azmat Wali had invoked the writ jurisdiction of the court, submitting that the division of the province from an administrative point of view was necessary and would be in the best interest of the province.

He submitted that several countries had no more than a population of five million of their provinces, which was necessary for the administration and securing the rights of the citizens.

He argued that Sindh should also be divided into seven autonomous states/administrative units — Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Nawabshah, Sukkur, Larkana, Dadu and Jacobabad — and each state would be responsible to generate revenue for its expenses and all the management system.

He maintained that every state of Sindh was rich and capable to maintain its expenses and could generate more revenue than its requirements.

The court was pleaded to order the federal and provincial governments to divide the territory of Sindh into seven states and Karachi as an independent state to run the administrative matters.

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2018