ISLAMABAD - The Islamabad High Court (IHC) will today resume hearing in a petition seeking disqualification of Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhary.
A single bench of IHC comprising Chief Justice of IHC Justice Athar Minallah will conduct hearing of the petition challenging the eligibility of Fawad Chaudhary alleging him for not declaring his assets.
The IHC bench has already issued notices to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the law ministry and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) directing them to submit their responses in this matter. The petitioner’s lawyer adopted before the court that the minister had concealed his assets while submitting his nomination papers to the ECP and he should be disqualified under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution.
He added that Fawad did not declare land he owns in Jhelum and therefore, he is not Sadiq and Ameen.
Justice Athar asked which person is ‘Sadiq and Ameen’. Such political cases should be resolved on political forums he added.
The lawyer argued that Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Jahangir Tareen was disqualified on the same ground to which the chief justice said that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Khawaja Asif was also disqualified by IHC, but later he was reinstated by the Supreme Court.
The petitioner, an anchor for a private TV channel, claimed in his petition that the minister concealed his assets when declaring them to the Election Commission of Pakistan and hence, should be disqualified under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution.
