Abolition of lifelong disqualification, historic decision

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Justice Qazi Faiz Isa is being criticized once again for the Supreme Court's decision to end his life-long disqualification. Justice Munir is making a comparison. But there is no similarity between these two cases except that then and now the petitioners belonged to Balochistan.


Doso, a resident of Loralai, Balochistan, killed a person in 1958. Then Loralai was considered a tribal area, so Doso was arrested and handed over to the Loya Jirga. After the hearing, the Jirga convicted Doso of murder, and he filed an appeal in the Lahore High Court, which was then known as the West Pakistan High Court. Appeal filed.


The High Court acquitted the dos0, but the federal government challenged this decision in the Supreme Court. This case of an ordinary citizen got historical status because under its guise, Justice Munir once again applied the doctrine of necessity and provided legal justification to the martial law enacted on 7 October 1958.


Just as the Dusu case got historical status due to the introduction of the doctrine of necessity, the Samiullah Baloch case will also be remembered for years. Petitioner Samiullah Baloch is a contractor by profession and belongs to Kharan district. Samiullah Baloch, the younger brother of former senator Sanaullah Baloch, the leader of Balochistan National Party, is also the district president of BNP in Kharan. Samiullah Baloch approached the court against former member of Balochistan Assembly Mir Abdul Karim Noshirwani and his son Mir Shoaib Noshirwani.


The plea was that since the defendants have been disqualified under Article 62F of the Constitution, they cannot be allowed to contest the election again due to lifelong disqualification. Chief Justice Saqib Nisar constituted a five-member bench under his chairmanship to hear these petitions, which included Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, Justice Umar Atta Bandial, Justice Ejaz-ul-Ahsan and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah. All such cases were consolidated. The court appointed Munir A. Malik and Ali Zafar advocates as its assistants while Ishtar Usaf Ali was then the Attorney General.


The decision was reserved on February 14, 2018, while this decision written by Justice Umar Atta Bandial was pronounced on April 12, 2018. All the judges unanimously declared that since Article 62(1) f of the Constitution did not determine the period of disqualification. Therefore, the persons who are disqualified under this clause will be considered disqualified for life. Justice Umar Atta Bandial wrote this decision with the help of Quranic verses, which was actually equivalent to rewriting the constitution.


Asma Jahangir, who was defending the former member of the National Assembly, Rai Hassan Nawaz, tried to explain to the judges, Attorney General Ashtar Usaf Ali gave arguments, but since the intention was to block Nawaz Sharif's path, the judges, from their jurisdiction, This decision was passed while crossing. In the past, the courts have given different decisions in this regard, for example, in 2013, Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry declared in the Abdul Ghafoor Lahri case that certain clauses related to disqualification in Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution are of a temporary nature, after a person has been declared disqualified. May be eligible again. For example, in 2015, National Assembly member Iftikhar Cheema was de-seated from NA-101, but he was declared eligible to contest the by-election. In the case of Roy Hasan Nawaz, a strict standard was probably set because his name was Nawaz, but Jamshed. Dasti was once again declared righteous and allowed to contest the election.


Imran Khan, Sheikh Rasheed and Khawaja Asif escaped disqualification, but Jahangir Tareen and Nawaz Sharif were crushed by the hammer. Justice Qazi Faiz Isa continued to say that conflicting judgments are giving the impression of likes and dislikes. Uniform standards and principles should be decided by combining the cases. First of all, there was no ambiguity regarding Article 62(1)F of the Constitution. When the period of disqualification is five years in other clauses, the same punishment is imposed here as well, but it is impossible for the judges to have any kind of doubt. Even if there was a doubt, the way to remove it was to refer the matter to the parliament of the time and ask that the ambiguity be removed immediately.


Now the seven-member bench headed by Justice Qazi Faiz Isa has also said that this article cannot be read alone. To say that since there is no fixed period, the disqualification will be for life, is not appropriate. The Election Act is present in the field and it clearly prescribes a period of disqualification of five years. Interpreting Article 62F of the Constitution in this regard is actually tantamount to rewriting the Constitution.


Interestingly, in April 2018, when the verdict of life disqualification was given, Nawaz Sharif was not a party to the case, and now that the life disqualification has been lifted, he is not a party. Come, you will benefit from it in the same way now. Not only Nawaz Sharif but also Imran Khan got relief from this decision. If this decision had not come, Imran Khan would have been ineligible for life, but now he will be able to participate in the elections after five years. Look beyond the love and hate of personalities and political affiliations. So this is a very historic decision because not only the supremacy of the Parliament has been recognized, but the position of distributing the certificates of "Sadiq and Amin" by some judges has also been terminated.