ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court finally realised on Friday that its 2012 order that lawmakers disqualified for hiding their dual nationality return their salaries and other pecuniary benefits and criminal prosecution be initiated against them appeared to be harsh.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar had taken up a set of review petitions filed by former health minister Begum Shehnaz Sheikh and former legislators Dr Ahmed Ali Shah, Farah Naz Isfahani, Amina Buttar, Dr Muhammad Ashraf Chohan and Muahmmad Jamil Malik against the Supreme Court’s Sept 20, 2012 verdict. Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan were members of the bench.

However, the judgement held that disqualification of the petitioners under Article 63(1)(c) of the Constitution would remain intact, unchanged, unmodified and in full force.

On Sept 20, 2012, a three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by then chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had disqualified 11 parliamentarians and provincial legislators with a directive to the Election Commission of Pakistan (CEC) to de-notify the politicians. The then judgement had stated that the politicians were guilty of corrupt practices under Section 78 of RoPA and the chief election commissioner was directed to initiate legal proceedings against the politicians.

The fresh verdict, issued by the apex court on Friday, said that the petitioners had been awarded the penalty of disqualification which by itself was a serious punishment.

The court altered earlier verdict by recalling the earlier findings that the petitioners appeared to be guilty of corrupt practices and the directive to the ECP to initiate proceedings against them.

Similarly, the earlier directive of the apex court to the petitioners to refund monetary benefits drawn by them for the period during which they held public office — including monthly remunerations, TA/DA, accommodation facilities and other perks to be calculated in monetary terms — stood modified to the extent that each petitioner notwithstanding the amount actually received by him/her in the aforesaid period would deposit a token sum of Rs500,000 within 30 days from the date of this order with the secretaries of the Senate and the national and provincial assemblies. A compliance report will be sent to the registrar of the Supreme Court for perusal of the judges in their chambers.

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2018