10-Year Disqualification
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) reinstated the 10-year disqualification period for individuals convicted under the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) laws, overturning a previous decision that reduced the disqualification to five years. The court’s division bench, comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz, suspended the verdict issued by its single bench, which had shortened the disqualification period.
The decision was made during the hearing of a plea filed by NAB challenging the reduction of the 10-year disqualification to five years for one of its convicts, Faiq Ali Jamali, a politician associated with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). The Senior Special Prosecutor for NAB, Muhammad Rafi, informed the IHC about the Supreme Court upholding Jamali’s sentence.
In response to NAB’s plea, the IHC reinstated the 10-year disqualification for Jamali, preventing him from contesting elections. The prosecutor emphasized that, according to NAB law, the disqualification period should be ten years.
NAB had approached the IHC on January 1, seeking the court’s intervention in allowing persons convicted under the NAB Ordinance to participate in the upcoming February 8 general elections. The anti-graft watchdog argued that individuals convicted under NAB law were relying on the single bench’s decision to contest the elections.
Highlighting that the single bench had previously reduced the disqualification period to five years in June of the preceding year, NAB requested the high court to suspend the impugned decision through an intra-court appeal. The IHC’s recent decision to reinstate the 10-year disqualification underscores the legal complexities surrounding the eligibility of individuals convicted under anti-corruption laws to participate in electoral processes.
