Ex-CJP seeks premier’s asset details from poll body

PTI files application to get Capt (retd) Safdar disqualified.

ISLAMABAD: Former chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) and chairman of the Pakistan Justice Democratic Critic Party (PJDCP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Monday approached country’s top electoral body seeking asset details of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

He has filed an application through his counsel asking the ECP to provide him year-wise details of assets of the prime minister from 2008 to 2015. Counsel Sheikh Ahsanuddin filed the petition on behalf of the former chief justice, alleging that the premier does not fulfil the criteria mentioned in Article 62 and 63 of the Constitution after he was exposed by the Panama Leaks for hiding assets in offshore companies.

“We will submit an application for disqualification of the prime minister once we receive the asset details,” the lawyer said.

The Panama Papers, a trove of documents leaked from the Panamanian law firm, had revealed some 214,000 offshore companies of some of the world’s rich and powerful including three children of Nawaz and other members of the Sharif family.

Disqualifying Capt Safdar

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has filed an application with ECP to disqualify the prime minister’s son-in-law, MNA Captain (retired) Mohammad Safdar, for concealing assets of his wife in his nomination and asset declaration papers.

After getting attested copies of asset details of Capt Safdar from the ECP on Monday, PTI candidate Nawabzada Salahudin Saeed from NA-21 moved another petition through his counsel Chaudhry Faisal Hussain to disqualify the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmaker for concealing offshore companies of his wife, Maryam Nawaz.

Saeed further requested the poll body to initiate criminal proceedings against Capt Safdar under section 94 of the Representation of Peoples Act 1976 for submitting false statement. It is not clear whether the ECP will take up the petitions on its own or whether it will refer them to the relevant High Court.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2016.