The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Wednesday reserved judgement regarding eligibility of three members of National Assembly (MNAs) of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) including Maleeka Ali Bokhari, Tashfeen Safdar and Kanwal Shauzab.
A single bench of IHC comprising acting Chief Justice Aamer Farooq after hearing the arguments on three identical petitions filed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MNAs Shaishta Pervaiz, Tahira Bukhari, Abdullah Khan and Chaudhary Mehmood Ali Hashim reserved the decision.
The petitioners prayed to the court that the three MNAs did not meet the criteria to hold membership of the Parliament under Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution as they hide information in their nomination papers.
They had claimed in their pleas that MNA Maleeka Bokhari was not eligible to participate in general election as she was holding dual nationality at time of submission of her nomination papers.
The petition stated that she submitted her nomination papers on June 10, 2018 and left the British nationality on June 11. The petitioner also alleged that MNA Tashfeen Safdar for hiding the information related to her dual nationality in her nomination papers.
They claimed that the MNA had left the dual nationality in 2013 and in an affidavit she had said that she neither held dual nationality, nor applied for it.
The other petition filed by Shaishta Pervaiz said that the third MNA Kanwal Shauzab had given wrong information in documents to shift her vote in Rawalpindi from Islamabad. Shaishta's petition said that Shauzab lives in Islamabad but when she contested the Senate elections, she provided the ECP with incorrect information regarding her permanent residence. She argued that because of this, she was not eligible to retain her National Assembly seat under the articles 62 and 63. The petition requested the court to direct the ECP to remove her for not being honest and righteous.