The Supreme Court (SC) was asked on Monday to review its judgment about the legal status of the Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. Last month a division bench of the court comprising of Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk and Justice Tariq Pervez had turned down an application seeking to discuss the status of his family members who had, as per his public admission, taken citizenship of the United States (U.S) much against his will. The review petition was filed by a freelance journalist Shahid Orakzai after the court on Thursday disqualified a number of MNAs and MPAs for holding dual nationalities. Justice Pervez in his judgment had ruled that the petitioner could not “pinpoint any provision of the Constitution where a person holding membership of Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) disqualifies on the ground that his spouse or dependents are citizens of another State”. In rebuttal, the courts attention was drawn today to Article 224 wherein the “immediate family members” of the care-taker Prime Minister (PM) and the Chief Minister (CM) were barred from taking part in the immediate elections to assemblies. The new clause was inserted through the 18th Constitutional Amendment with an “Explanation” that “immediate family members” means spouse and children. The petitioner today reminded the court that the fact about the status of Ch. Nisar’s family members was attested by the High Court and the SC needed not question the same.
