The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will take up a reference seeking disqualification of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday (today).
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmaker Khurram Sher Zaman, who moved the petition, will also appear before the commission for the initial hearing of his plea. The commission is likely to decide on the maintainability of the petition in the preliminary hearing.
Speaking to media, the PTI leader from Sindh said the former president and his facilitators should make up their mind for his disqualification. “The disqualification over concealing assets is the fate of Sindh’s godfather,” he said.
The PTI lawmaker had moved the petition accusing Zardari of concealing his assets. He alleged that the PPP leader owned an apartment in Belaire Condominiums located at524 East 72nd Street in New York but didn’t disclose it in his nomination papers for the 2018 general elections. “Zardari under the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and rules of the Election Commission of Pakistan, as per past precedent, should be disqualified from holding public office under Article 62 (1)(f), as in my opinion he ceases to be truthful and sagacious,” he argued in his petition, pleading the ECP to disqualify the PPP co-chairman as member of the National Assembly.
Published in Daily Times, January 10th 2019.
