Islamabad, April 26: The Islamabad High Court has banned Pakistan Foreign Minister, Khawaja Asif from contesting elections for life. The bench headed by Justice Athar Minallah and comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akther Kiyani announced the verdict.

On April 10, a larger bench of the high court had reserved its verdict over the petition filed by Usman Dar for disqualifying the foreign minister. Dar is the member of Pakistan’s political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). The PTI member accused Asif of concealing the facts about holding an Iqama [foreign work permit] of United Arab Emirates (UAE).

During the hearing, the court questioned that how a person having a full-time job could look after a ministry in Pakistan. In Asif’s defence, his counsel said that he was working for a Dubai-based bank before elections.

Dar had contested elections against the foreign minister in 2013 general elections in the NA-110 constituency on PTI’s ticket. In the petition, Dar accused Asif of hiding the fact of holding an Iqama, or a foreign work permit, in his nomination papers. Dar, through his counsel Sikandar Bashir Mohmand, nominated Asif, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the National Assembly secretary as respondents.

In his nomination papers, Asif had mentioned himself as a businessman. The PTI member in his petitioned mentioned that the foreign minister had been hired as a full-time employee of International Mechanical and Electrical Company (IMECL) since July 2, 2011 and served at various positions, including legal and special advisor.

According to the contract signed between The foreign minister and IMECL, Asif was to receive a monthly basic salary of AED (United Arab Emirates Dirham)35,000 along with a monthly allowance of AED 15,000. Khawaja Asif had earlier submitted a letter of a UAE-based International Mechanical and Electrical company in the court claiming that he had never served as full-time employee of the firm.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 26, 2018 04:14 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).