Pakistan SC accepts Sharif’s plea against his disqualification

The Pakistan Supreme Court on Tuesday accepted a plea to form a fivejudge bench to hear review petitions of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, challenging his disqualification in the Panama Papers scandal.

The separate petitions, filed by Sharif, his children, his son-inlaw, and current finance minister Ishaq Dar, challenged the judgement to disqualify the three-time premier for dishonesty. They claimed the judgement violated several provisions of law.

The lawyer of Sharif’s children, Salman Akram Raja, asked the court to make the bench hearing the petition a large one as the decision to disqualify Sharif was issued by five members, and a three-member panel was not empowered to hear the review petitions.

He referred to a written plea already submitted by Sharif’s children against the hearing of review petition by a three-member bench instead of a five-judge bench.

After preliminary arguments, the judges accepted the plea and announced that they would ask the Chief Justice to form a fivemember panel for the hearing .

The panel postponed further hearings till Wednesday.

Sharif’s lawyer Khawaja Harris was also present during the hearing and argued in favour of a larger bench.

In late July, Sharif was disqualified for failing to disclose a un-withdrawn receivables salary from UAE-based Capital FZE, a company run by his son.