Supreme Court of Pakistan has suspended the membership of 28 members of the National
and Provincial Assemblies and Senate, who were elected in bye-elections
held under incomplete Election Commission and the government failed to
protect them by getting 20th Amendment passed from the Parliament.
A four-member SC bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP)
Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Monday heard the case regarding the fake
voter lists on the petition filed by Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf chief Imran
Khan and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto against fake electoral
lists of the Election Commission of Pakistan.
The bench observed that the government had failed to pass the bill
within the given time frame and therefore the court had decided to
suspend the memberships of the concerned lawmakers until the government
amended the Constitution.
It should be mentioned here the court, in its previous hearing, set
February 6 as the deadline to the government to give legal cover to the
by-polls and warned the government of disqualification of the lawmakers
elected in by-polls.
There are nine MNAs and three senators who were disqualified by the
apex court, one from Balochistan and two MPAs from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The members disqualified by the apex court include eight from
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and nine from Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz
(PML-N).
Punjab Assembly’s nine lawmakers and Sindh Assembly’s four members were declared ineligible to continue as lawmakers.
The28 members suspended by the Supreme Court include three senators
out of which two are working as federal ministers while nine are members
of the National Assembly, 8 MPA’s from Punjab, 4 from Sindh, 2 from
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 1 from Balochistan.
The members include Federal Minister for Finance Senator Abdul Hafeez
Sheikh, Minister for Petroleum Dr Asim Hussain, Senator Syed Sajid
Hussain while nine MNAs are Chaudhary Asghar Ali Jutt of PPP, Jamshed
Ahmed Dasti of PPP, Muhammad Akhtar Khan Kanju (Independent), Sardar
Shafqat Hayat Khan (PML-N), Ch Tassaduq Masud Khan (PPP), Haji Khuda Bux
Rajar (PML-F), Ms Khadija Aamir Yar Malik (PPP), Sardar Mumtaz Khan
(PML-N), Sardar Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari (PML-Q).
The MPA’s include Syed Basit Ahmed Sultan, Mian Muhammad Ajmal Asif,
Ahmed Mujtaba Gilani the brother of PM Gilani, Sardar Meer Badshah
Qaisrani, Malik Saif-ul-Malook Khokhar, Ijaz Ahmed Khatoon, Malik Ghulam
Raza, Saifuddin Khalid, Ghulam Qadir Khan Bettani, Muhammad Rashad
Khan, Maulvi Muhammad Sarwar Musakhel ,Humaira Awais Shahid, Rana Rizvi,
Arif Masih, Rasheed Khan Bhai and Chettan Mal.
Earlier on January 19 during the hearing of the case, the CJ remarked
that the court will have to annul the by-elections, in case the
Constitution is not amended.
The court gave the government till February 6 to adopt the 20th
Amendment of the Constitution. Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry said that
if the Constitution is not amended by February 6, then the court will
have to annul by-elections as unconstitutional, as there are over
3,500,000 bogus votes in the old lists. SANA
