ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf has rejected a disqualification reference against PPP MNA Asif Ali Zardari which was submitted last month by former PTI cabinet member Zulfiqar Bukhari for allegedly receiving three bulletproof vehicles from Toshakhana.

The vehicles were gifted to Mr Zardari by Arab leaders when he was holding the office of the country’s president, in violation of rules.

“The speaker has rejec­ted the disqualification reference against Mr Zardari and a copy of his decision has been sent to the Election Commission of Pakistan,” says an announcement by the NA Secretariat on Wednesday.

Mr Bukhari had submitted the reference against Mr Zardari to the National Asse­m­bly Secretariat on Oct 11 under Article 63(2) of the Constitution which seeks disqualification of a parliamentarian for being “dishonest”.

Through the reference, Mr Bukhari had alleged that Mr Zardari, while serving as the country’s president, “retained” gifted bulletproof vehicles from Toshakhana “as a consequence of illegal relaxation of the rules” granted by then prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in February 2009.

According to the reference, the former president had retained two BMW cars gifted to him by then UAE president Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and former Libyan president Moammer Qadhafi. Similarly, the reference alleged that Mr Zardari had also allegedly illegally retained a Toyota Lexus LX-470 that had also been gifted to him by the then UAE president.

The reference had been moved apparently by the PTI in response to a similar case against party chairman and former PM Imran Khan in which the ECP has already disqualified him for being the member of the National Assembly.

The PTI had earlier submitted a disqualification reference against Mr Zardari to the ECP for allegedly concealing his assets in December 2018. However, the party after a month withdrew the reference, announcing that it would take the matter to the Supreme Court.

On the day Mr Bukhari submitted the reference against Mr Zardari, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Murtaza Javed Abbasi, while speaking during a joint sitting of parliament in the evening, had sought disqualification of PTI Senator and former finance minister Shaukat Tarin for allegedly working against the country’s integrity and national security and announced on the floor of the house that he would formally submit a reference in this regard to the Senate chairman.

Mr Abbasi had sought the disqualification of Mr Tarin under Article 62(1)(g) of the Constitution under which a member of the parliament can be disqualified if found guilty of “working against the integrity of the country”.

Mr Abbasi had made a leaked telephonic conversation of Mr Tarin with Punjab Finance Minister Mohsin Leghari in the month of August in which the former finance minister could be heard asking Mr Leghari to tell the federal government that Punjab could not post a budget surplus due to devastated floods which was a major demand of the International Monetary Fund for giving a bailout package.

In the same audio clip, Mr Tarin had purportedly told Mr Leghari that he had also told Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Minister Taimoor Jhagra to do the same.

The parliamentary affairs minister alleged that the leaked audio had proved that Mr Tarin was making an attempt to “sabotage” the IMF deal under a “conspiracy” and thus he was working against the country’s integrity and national security. Under Article 62(1)(g) of the Constitution, the minister said, any person acting against the country’s national integrity could not become a member of the parliament.

Mr Abbasi alleged that the former PTI minister had hatched a conspiracy to create a Sri Lanka-like situation in the country and make Pakistan a defaulting state.

Meanwhile, the NA Secretariat has issued a 20-point agenda for the session of the lower house of the parliament beginning on Thursday in an apparent move to counter the ongoing long march and proposed sit-in by the PTI.

The government had convened the session on Thursday as the PTI had earlier announced that it would reach Islamabad on Friday (Nov 4).

However, the PTI has now delayed its long march and now has announced that it would enter the capital city on November 11, thus creating a difficult situation for the government as it will now have to continue the session for another week despite having no significant business to do.

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2022