Nawaz Sharif disqualified from holding public office for life, rules Pakistan Supreme Court

Pakistan’s Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the disqualification handed to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in the Panama Papers case was for life, news channels reported. Sharif had resigned in July after the Supreme Court disqualified him from holding office in the Panama Papers case. [caption id=“attachment_4430035” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. AP[/caption] The verdict was issued unanimously by all five judges of the bench while hearing a case related to the determination of time duration for disqualification of a lawmaker under the Constitution, the Dawn reported. The court had grappled with Article 62(1)(f) which only stated that a lawmaker is disqualified under specified conditions but did not set out the duration of the disqualification. Article 62(1)(f), which sets the precondition for a member of Pakistan’s Parliament to be ’s_adiq_’ and ‘_ameen’ (_honest and righteous), was the one under which Sharif was disqualified as prime minister last year, the Dawn report added. A bunch of appeals and petitions had challenged the length of disqualification under the article, according to The Financial Express. The Supreme Court had reserved its verdict on the matter on 14 February. At the last hearing, the government had argued that the length of disqualification should be left for the Parliament to decide, not the court, the report added. The judges, however, ruled that according to the Constitution, those who are not “honest” and “truthful” as per law are banned from Parliament for life, Geo News reported. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Jahangir Tareen was among the other lawmakers also disqualified under the said article. Following the verdict, both Sharif and Tareen have become ineligible to ever hold public office. It has been stated in the decision read out by Justice Umar Ata Bandial that the disqualification of any member of Parliament or a public servant under Article 62 in the future will be permanent. With inputs from agencies