ISLAMABAD: The Pakis­tan Peoples Party (PPP) on Monday filed a petition with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) seeking the disqualification of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and four members of his family from the various legislatures of the country.

The 75-page petition was filed by PPP secretary general Sardar Latif Khosa and former National Assembly deputy speaker Faisal Karim Kundi. It alleges that the prime minister and his four relatives did not fulfil the criteria necessary to remain a legislator under Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution.

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) had filed a disqualification reference against the prime minister on Friday. Their reference alleged that the prime minister had not mentioned the offshore companies, revealed in the Panama Papers, in his statements of assets submitted to the ECP.

The petitions were filed following the failure of the parliamentary committee on Panama Papers to prepare terms of reference (ToR) for a proposed judicial commission that would hold investigations against the hundreds of Pakistanis, whose names had appeared in the list of those who own offshore companies.

ECP secretary says both PTI, PPP references will be decided after new members are appointed

Besides the prime minister, the PPP has sought the disqualification of Pun­jab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif from the Punjab Assembly, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar from the Senate, retired Captain Mohammad Safdar — the husband of Maryam Nawaz Sharif — and Hamza Shahbaz, son of Shahbaz Sharif, from the National Assembly.

“The prime minister is not sadiq and ameen anymore and, therefore, is not eligible to hold a seat in the National Assembly,” says the petition, which also contains charges of money laundering, tax evasion and concealment of assets.

Through the petition, the PPP has alleged that the Sharif family members have wilfully concealed their assets in the country and abroad in their declarations to the ECP.

PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had approved the draft of the petition during a meeting held at the Zardari House in Islamabad on Thursday.

Iftikhar A. Khan adds: Also on Monday, the ‘non-functional’ ECP asked the government to appoint new members to the commission on an “emergency basis”, or find a legal way to deal with the crisis.

Talking to reporters, ECP Secretary Babar Yaqoob Fateh Muhammad said the message had been communicated through formal and informal channels, in view of the vacuum created by the retirement of all four members on the same day. He pointed out that local government elections and by-polls for vacant national and provincial assembly seats had to be postponed.

He revealed that a formal letter, highlighting the delay in discharging the core functions of the ECP in the absence of members, had been sent to the prime minister. While he said a response had been received, he stopped short of revealing the content of that communiqué.

However, sources said that the government told the commission to carry on its functions under the relevant provisions of the Constitution.

The ECP secretary said that under the law, new ECP members were to be appointed within 45 days of the retirement of their predecessors.

He confirmed that two references — one filed by the PTI against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the other filed by the PPP against the PM and his family members — had been received. However, he said the fate of these references would only be decided after the appointment of new members.

ECP Additional Secretary Fida Muhammad said that as many as 32 proceedings were being held in abeyance due to the non-functional ECP. At least 22 of them concerned the local government elections and the rest had to do with national elections, he said.

He announced that annual revision of electoral rolls was expected to take the voter count to around 98 million and would begin with a door-to-door verification campaign from Aug 1. Various phases of the exercise would be completed by Oct 20, he said.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2016