A three-member bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja, will hear a petition filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Ishaq Khan Khakwani on September 29, calling for the disqualification of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
The other members of the bench include Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Dost Muhammad Khan.
Khakwani, who is a central committee leader in the PTI, had filed the petition through his counsel Advocate Irfan Qadir requesting the court to order disqualification of the prime minister for falsely stating in the National Assembly that he had not asked Chief of the Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif to act as a mediator and guarantor between the government on one side and PTI Chairman Imran Khan and Pakistan Awami Tehreek chief Dr Tahirul Qadri on the other for ending the political impasse.
The petition added that the prime minister later denied in the assembly that the army was dealing with such issues without the government desiring it to do so. By making two different statements, it alleged, Sharif had tried to malign and damage the fair image of the army in violation of Article 62 (g) of the Constitution.
The petition said that an army spokesman had confirmed that it was the government which had asked the army chief to play a role in resolving the standoff.
This established that Nawaz Sharif had made a false statement concerning the army chief and, therefore, was liable to be proceeded against under Article 62 (f) of the Constitution, it argued.
The article deals with the qualification of a member from becoming a parliamentarian if he is not sagacious, righteous, honest and Ameen.
The admission of the petition comes in the backdrop of protests led by PTI and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) against Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif with the parties calling for the resignation of the prime minister in what they — particularly Imran’s party — regard as a government that came to power as the result of an allegedly rigged election.
