The Supreme Court on Thursday issued notices to 20 dual-national former parliamentarians and directed them to appear before it on the next date of hearing.
The former lawmakers to whom notices were issued included Asim Hussain, Nadeem Ehsan, Haider Abbas Rizvi, Fauzia Ejaz, Sabeen Rizvi, Arish Kumar, Donya Aziz, Arif Aziz Sheikh, Jamil Ahmed Malik, Fauzia Asghar, Tahir Ali Javed, Jamil Ashraf, Javaid Iqbal Tarkai, Murad Ali Shah, Sadiq Ali Memon, Abdul Moeed Siddiqui, Muhammad Ali Shah, Askari Taqvi, Raza Haroon and Tayyab Hassan.
The three-member SC bench of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Gulzar Ahmad and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed questioned why criminal cases were not preceded against the dual national former members of National and provincial assemblies.
Upon which, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) representative apprised the court that the commission had already conveyed the detail about the dual nationals to the returning officers (ROs) of relevant constituencies.
During the proceedings, the court inquired from the ECP about the reasons for not disqualifying the parliamentarians, who were holding dual nationalities.
The court also referred to the dual nationality case of former lawmaker Shehnaz Sheikh in which action was taken against her even after she had tendered her resignation from the legislature.
The chief justice said when there was an SC judgement as a precedent, why was the ECP reluctant on flowing it and taking action against the dual nationality holders.
To this, the ECP representative requested to be given some time to compile the record.
Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed stated that there should not be dual standards against the powerful lawmakers and the ordinary ones as the law was equal for everyone and the action should be taken across the board.
The CJP said the Supreme Court’s verdict was binding upon the ECP which should take notice against the former lawmakers even after their resignations.
The bench, in its interim order, issued notices to the 20 former parliamentarians and directed them to appear before it on next date of hearing and adjourned the proceedings until April 1.
