KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Monday took up a petition of Haleem Adil Sheikh, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf lawmaker and opposition leader in the Sindh Assembly, seeking disqualification of Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah.
The petition submitted that in 2012 the Supreme Court had disqualified Shah and directed the Election Commission of Pakistan to initiate legal proceedings against him for filing misdeclaration.
However, he further submitted that Shah had managed to get himself elected in a by-election in 2014 allegedly by defying the judgement of the apex court. Therefore, he be declared ineligible for holding membership of the provincial assembly by declaring the notification of the ECP as null and void.
Justice Muhammad Shafi Siddiqui observed that the Supreme Court of Pakistan has recently given its decision over the matter.
He directed the petitioner to convince the court on the maintainability of the petition. He also refused the plea of issuing notices to Shah and other respondents.
The court then adjourned the hearing for an indefinite period.
It may be recalled that an identical petition was already pending before the SHC against the chief minister.
Petitioner Mehmood Akhtar Naqvi, a regular litigant, in his petition submitted that the apex court had disqualified Shah and others in a dual nationality case, but with the purported help/connivance of the ECP, he contested the by-election in 2014 and general elections of 2018.
The petitioner sought disqualification of the chief minister for holding dual nationality while filing nomination papers for the seat of a provincial assembly during the general elections in 2013.
