ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif on Monday submitted an application in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) challenging the formation of a larger bench that started hearing a petition seeking his disqualification for possessing an Iqama (UAE work permit).
Asif’s lawyer submitted a Civil Miscellaneous Application (CMA) to the court, which said that “constitution of a larger bench by this Honorable Court has directly deprived Respondent No 1 [Khawaja Asif] of his substantive right to an appeal provided for by Section 3 of the Law Reforms Ordinance 1972.”
It also states, “Only after the immediately preceding two independent grounds are graciously ruled upon, may this Honorable Court kindly proceed to hear the matter purely upon its own merits, if any.”
The lawyer said he did not want to press the application and would submit a detailed reply by the next hearing.
The bench, headed by Justice Amir Farooq, directed the respondent’s counsel to submit a reply within 10 days and also directed to give an advance copy of the reply to the petitioner’s counsel so that both the parties are in a position to argue the matter on the next hearing.
The bench re-issued notice to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) with directions to submit reply by the next date of hearing.
The plea for Asif’s disqualification was filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Usman Dar who contested the 2013 general election from NA-110 – the Sialkot constituency from where Asif was elected to the National Assembly.
