‘Rehman Malik unfit for his post’

According to the petitioner, Malik was a member of the FIA, where he was accused of abusing his powers.

KARACHI: A lawyer has submitted an application asking the Sindh High Court (SHC) to declare Rehman Malik unfit for the Senate. The case will be heard today (Wednesday) by a two-member bench led by the SHC chief justice.

According to the petitioner, Iqbal Haider Advocate, Senator and Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik was a member of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), where he was accused of abusing his powers. A reference was submitted in an accountability court, but Malik never showed up for the hearing. He was thereby declared an ‘absconder’.

Under section 31 of the Accountability Act, Malik was sentenced to a three-year imprisonment, stated the petition, however after the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) was implemented, his sentence was discarded. Malik was later elected as a senator from Sindh.

However, since the Supreme Court has declared that the NRO is defunct, Rehman Malik’s sentence had been restored and the Lahore High Court had issued a warrant for his arrest. President Asif Ali Zardari, using his powers, cancelled Malik’s imprisonment.

The president of a country can pardon any crime but the crime remains and any man responsible for a crime should not be considered eligible for the post of a parliamentarian, said the petitioner, adding that details on this can be found in the Constitution under Articles 62 and 63.

According to the petitioner, he had submitted a reference to Chairman Senate Farooq Naik asking that Rehman Malik be declared ineligible for his post and by law, the chairman was supposed to forward the reference to the election commission within 30 days. However, Naik ignored the law. Instead, a letter was issued from the secretary Senate that said the reference was nullified since the petitioner had taken it back.

Haider said he had not taken back his reference and the letter had been issued to create confusion. He added that he had to submit his reference in the court because the Senate chairman refused to perform his constitutional duty. There was no other way to get the job done, said Haider.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 8^th, 2010.