PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Wednesday dismissed a petition for disqualification of Provincial Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra on multiple grounds.

The petition, filed by JUI-F leader Maulana Amanullah Haqqani, alleged that the provincial minister was a dual national. The petitioner is also a former provincial minister.

The bench of PHC Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Syed M Attique Shah pronounced a short order of turning down plea of the petitioner after completion of arguments by both the parties.

Advocate Ijaz Khan Sabi appeared for Mr Jhagra and refuted the allegations levelled against his client by the petitioner, stating that he was not a dual national and had never evaded payment of any tax permissible under the law.

He contended that the petition was not maintainable as under Article 225 of the Constitution election to the Parliament or a provincial assembly could only be called in question by filing an election petition before the concerned election tribunal.

Petition was filed by JUI-F leader before previous polls

The petition was filed prior to the July 2018 general elections by Maulana Haqqani, who was a rival candidate against Mr Jhagra on PK-73 Peshawar VII constituency of provincial assembly. He had requested the court to disqualify Mr Jhagra from contesting the elections and direct Election Commission of Pakistan to remove his name from the list of contesting candidates.

The petitioner had prayed to declare illegal the orders of the returning officer concerned and the appellate tribunal, which had declared Mr Jhagra eligible to contest polls.

During course of hearing, the bench asked the petitioner and his counsel whether the petition had not become infructuous after the polls were held. The petitioner requested that his case should be decided on merit.

The petitioner’s counsel stated that a candidate named Dilroz Khan, also belonging to PTI, had filed an election appeal before appellate tribunal against acceptance of nomination papers of Mr Jhagra by the returning officer. However, he stated that the appeal was dismissed as it was withdrawn by the appellant.

He stated that the petitioner had no knowledge of the election appeal as he had not been made party to it. He stated that Mr Jhagra concealed several facts while filing his nomination papers as he admitted that he stayed in Dubai for nine years but did not mention any Iqama or residential permit.

He alleged that Mr Jhagra was a dual national having both Pakistani and British passports in record of Nadra and thus under Article 63 of the Constitution he was not qualified to contest polls.

He claimed that Mr Jhagra paid nominal income tax for the years 2015 and 2016, whereas he did not pay any tax in 2017, but admitted that he earned profit to the tune of Rs28 million during the financial year ending on Jun 30, 2017, which meant he did not pay any tax on that amount.

Advocate Ijaz Sabi rebutted his arguments and contended that the present petition was not maintainable as the petitioner had not availed the alternate remedy during polls in the form of objection petition or election appeal in terms of section 63 (1) of Elections Act, 2017.

He pointed out that in the 2018 general elections his client was elected from PK-73 by securing 15,449 votes whereas the petitioner received only 3,796 votes. He stated that his client was not a dual national and had only a Pakistani passport.

He said that Mr Jhagra was also having a valid UK visa on his passport and in case he was a British national he won’t require any visa. He added that Mr Jhagra remained in Dubai till December 2017, therefore, he was not bound to pay any tax as his income was not from any source in Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2021