The Islamabad High Court has been approached for the disqualification of Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution.
Sami Ibrahim, a private TV channel anchor, on Saturday filed a petition in the IHC claiming that Fawad Chaudhry had concealed his assets while submitting his nomination papers with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). He has made the minister, Election Commission of Pakistan, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and others as respondents.
"That Respondent No 1 (Fawad Chaudhry), with mala fide intention and ulterior motives, concealed his assets, cost of assets and provided wrong & false statement of his own and spouses' assets and their cost in FORM-B (statement of assets and liabilities) along with nomination papers," said the petition.
The petitioner urged the High Court to disqualify Fawad Chaudhry under Article 62 (1) (f) from holding public office as he had not disclosed documents containing his proprietary information. The Article 62 (1)(f) says; "A person shall not be qualified to be elected or chosen as a member of Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) unless he is sagacious, righteous and non-profligate, honest and ameen..."
The petitioner has also sought the court's direction for lodging a criminal case against him and withdrawal of all privileges granted to him as a minister.
A rift between Fawad and the anchor reportedly started in June when the latter accused the minister of slapping him at a wedding reception.
Fawad claimed that the individual tried to blackmail him by running a campaign against him. However, the anchorperson denied that he had ever asked for money and also claimed that he had evidence that Fawad is "conspiring" against the government.