Is Nawaz Sharif disqualified for life, or is there a possibility of him staging a comeback? A day after the Supreme Court disqualified Mr Sharif from holding public office, legal experts, political observers and ordinary citizens appear equally confused.
When the question about the duration of the 67-year-old politician’s ouster from politics was put to seasoned lawyers, most seemed confused. Some said the question needed to be addressed since it has remain unanswered for far too long, Dawn reported.
A five-member bench disqualified Sharif under articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution, which state that a member of the parliament should be “truthful” and “righteous”.
Tariq Mehmood, former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, told the newspaper that a larger bench of the Supreme Court was seized with several cases, including those of Samina Khawar Hayat and Mohammad Haneef, in which the moot point was to determine whether disqualification under Article 62(1)(f) was perpetual or not.
Former chief justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, hearing one such case, had wondered how anyone could be disqualified from participating in elections forever on the basis of articles 62 and 63, saying people could reform.
Senior lawyer Raheel Kamran Sheikh recalled that former PM Yousuf Raza Gilani was disqualified in 2012 for contempt of court under Article 63, which specified disqualification for five years. Unfortunately under Article 62(1)(f) no period of disqualification has been specified, he said.
