PAKISTAN: Foreign minister disqualified from parliament

A Pakistani court has disqualified Foreign Minister Khwaja Muhammad Asif from holding public office on charges that he made omissions on a parliamentary wealth declaration, the latest blow to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party. A three-member bench of the Islamabad High Court issued the verdict in the Pakistani capital on Thursday. Asif later […]

A Pakistani court has disqualified Foreign Minister Khwaja Muhammad Asif from holding public office on charges that he made omissions on a parliamentary wealth declaration, the latest blow to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party.

A three-member bench of the Islamabad High Court issued the verdict in the Pakistani capital on Thursday. Asif later told local media that he would appeal the decision at the Supreme Court.

The ruling marked the latest dismissal of a member of parliament for not being “honest and trustworthy”, based on an article of the Pakistani constitution that sets out criteria of eligibility to be elected to the National Assembly. 

In July last year, the country’s Supreme Court dismissed then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the chief of the ruling PML-N party to which Asif also belongs, for omissions on his parliamentary wealth declaration.