The Supreme Court is set to address the discrepancy between judicial rulings and parliamentary legislation regarding the interpretation of Article 62 of the Constitution, specifically whether disqualification under this article entails a lifetime ban or a duration of five years.
Article 62(1)(f) was introduced into the Constitution by Military ruler Gen Ziaul Haq through the 8th Amendment. Notably, despite 38 years passing since its inclusion during the era of dictatorship, no elected government has annulled Article 62(1)(f).
When a larger bench of the Supreme Court disqualified PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif under Article 62(1)(f) for non-disclosure of unclaimed wages earned from a Dubai-based company owned by his son during the Panama Papers case, the duration of his ineligibility for contesting elections became a subject of inquiry.
In a judgment led by former Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, the larger bench ruled that disqualification under Article 62(1)(f) would be for life. The same bench, including Justice Ijazul Ahsan, who was part of the Panama Papers case, set the term of disqualification as a lifetime. However, Justice (retd) Azmat Saeed Sheikh, another member of the bench, emphasized that the court could interpret but not amend the Constitution.
Jahangir Tareen, a senior politician facing lifelong disqualification under Article 62(1)(f), had a similar fate. In June of this year, parliament, through the Election Act (Amendment) Bill, limited the disqualification period to five years under Article 62(1)(f).
With no challenges to the Election Act (Amendment) Act, 2023 in the past six months, the matter of Section 232, which determines the disqualification period, is now brought before the Supreme Court. Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa has decided to form a larger bench to address the lifetime disqualification under Article 62(1)(f) and the conflict with the recent legislative change, referring the issue to a three-member committee headed by himself, with Justices Sardar Tariq Masood and Ijazul Ahsan as members. This committee will likely consolidate related cases for a unified hearing, including a constitutional petition from the Supreme Court Bar Association requesting the court not to directly disqualify politicians under Article 62(1)(f) but to let trial courts make such determinations.
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