ISLAMABAD – In another blow to the embattled Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz, a legislator of the ruling party was disqualified for life on Tuesday 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.
A three-member bench comprising Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel, while announcing the verdict, upheld the decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), in which Bhatti was termed ineligible for being a lawmaker.
The disqualification of Raja comes just a week before the end of the government’s five-year tenure.
The 32-page judgment authored by Supreme Court’s Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, held that the filing of the affidavit with the nomination papers was the requirement of the Representation of People Act (ROPA) and the motive for the filing of a false affidavit was to enter the provincial assembly through unfair means by making the 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”, says the judgment.
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 added.
Raja Bhatti contested the elections from PP-4 Rawalpindi-IV in May 2013 and bagged 60159 votes but was declared the returned candidate. The notification in this regard was withdrawn after ECP found his testimonials fake in 2017.
He was accused of submitting the degree of another person with the name Shaukat Aziz Sheikh. However, he challenged the ECP decision in the Supreme Court, which has now turned down the petition.
Bhatti is the son of late Justice Abdul Aziz Bhatti, who remained a PPP MNA during Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s stint.
Earlier, PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and former foreign minister Khawaja Asif were disqualified by courts for not being ‘Sadiq and Ameen’.
