Former foreign minister Khawaja Asif on Saturday has submitted written reply in Supreme Court (SC) over his disqualification issue. In his reply, Asif said constitution or law doesn't bar anyone to work as a member of National Assembly (NA), adding that major part of his income comes from private business. Listing business as an occupation is not wrong, he said.
The reply further stated that no transaction has been made from Khawaja Asif's bank account in Dubai. Non-declaration of closed account is not unlawful, he added. He said that he mistakenly concealed the Dubai bank account details. On April 27, IHC disqualified Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif from the parliament under Article 62 (1) (f).
A three-member bench, headed by Justice Athar Minallah, had reserved verdict on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Usman Dar's plea on April-10. As per details garnered, the verdict was announced by Justice Athar Minallah. The bench disqualified Khawaja Asif in the following words: "We declare that the Respondent was not qualified to contest the General Election of 2013 from NA 110 as he did not fulfil the conditions described under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution, read with section 99(1)(f) of the Act of 1976.
The petition is, therefore, allowed. The Registrar of this Court is directed to send certified copy of this judgment to the Election Commission for de-notifying the Respondent as Member of the National Assembly of Pakistan. A copy is also directed to be sent to the Speaker of National Assembly of Pakistan for information."
Afterwards, Asif challenged the decision of his disqualification over iqama in SC, saying that he unintentionally concealed the details of his bank accounts but provided them before the filing of current writ. He further requested the court to annul the notification of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). It is worth here to mention that Dar had lost elections to Asif in May-2013.
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