ISLAMABAD: Just a week before the end of the government’s five-year term, the Supreme Court on Tuesday disqualified a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz member of the Punjab Assembly for life under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution.

Raja Shaukat Aziz Bhatti was disqualified for giving a false affidavit with his nomination papers for contesting the general elections in 2008.

Authored by Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, the 32-page judgement held that the filing of the affidavit with the nomination papers was the requirement of the Representation of People Act and the motive for filing of a false affidavit was to enter the provincial assembly by unfair means by making false representation regarding the required educational qualifications.

Thus the appellant is not honest and ameen in terms of Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution and such lack of qualification “disentitles the appellant from being a candidate for or being a member of the parliament or the provincial assembly”, according to the judgement.

Raja Bhatti contested the elections from PP-4 Rawalpindi-IV in May 2013 and was declared the returned candidate.

Raja Shaukat Aziz Bhatti contested election from PP-4 by using false testimonials

Later, retired Maj Iftikhar Mehmood Kiani filed an application before the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) praying that Mr Bhatti be denotified as a member of the provincial assembly since he had used false testimonials and made a misdeclaration while contesting the 2008 elections.

On June 15, 2010, the ECP concluded on the basis of an inquiry under the orders of the apex court that Mr Bhatti had contested the elections in 2008 by using false testimonials.

Consequently, by the order of June 20, 2017, the notification in favour of Mr Bhatti as the returned candidate was withdrawn.

He challenged the ECP decision before the Islamabad High Court which was also dismissed through a judgement on July 28, 2017, and he finally challeged the order in the Supreme Court.

Advocate Malik Waheed Anjum, representing Mr Bhatti, argued before the three-judge Supreme Court comprising Justice Saeed, Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel that the ECP’s June 20 decision was without jurisdiction since such powers of declaring an election null and void could only be exercised by the commission within 60 days of the issuance of the notification declaring the candidate as a successful member.

Justice Saeed held in the judgement that in view of the facts and circumstances and as settled law, the Supreme Court could not abdicate its responsibility by brushing the issues floating on the surface under the carpet.

“Hence we have no other option but to convert the proceedings into suo motu proceedings under Article 184(3) of the Constitution to examine the cases of the parties on the basis of the material available on record and examine ECP’s order by determining whether the appellant was disqualified or not for being a member of the provincial assembly.”

The judgement recalled that when the appellant contested the election in 2008, it was the requirement of the law that a candidate must be a graduate to be eligible to contest the polls.

Mr Bhatti submitted his nomination papers and claimed to possess the requisite educational qualification on the basis of a BA degree issued by University of Punjab.

The degree allegedly appended with the nomination papers was sent by ECP to the Higher Education Commission, but it transpired that the degree was earned by Shaukat Aziz Sheikh and not by the appellant.

Conveniently for the appellant the original record pertaining to the nomination papers of 2008 had gone missing, the judgement said, adding that the ECP officers summoned at the behest of the appellant confirmed that the record had been lost and the proceedings had been initiated against some employees of the commission in this behalf.

Likewise, the diploma presented by the appellant from Victoria College of Technology and E-Commerce, UK, was also not equivalent to BA degree issued by any university of Pakistan, the judgement said.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2018