ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan on Monday declared lifetime disqualification for lawmakers under Article 62 (1)(f) of the Constitution ‘null and void’, ruling that parliamentarians would be barred from holding office only for five years.

A seven-member larger bench, headed by the CJP and comprising Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Aminuddin Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Musarrat Hilali, announced the reserved verdict on a set of petitions seeking to determine whether the disqualification period for a lawmaker was for five years or a lifetime.

The Supreme Court declared that no person can be barred for a lifetime from running in elections if they are disqualified under Article 62 (1)(f), boosting hopes for major politicians who are eyeing to contest polls.

The law is the same provision under which former prime minister and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party (IPP) Chairman Jahangir Tareen were disqualified.

In 2018, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court unanimously held that disqualification handed down under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution is for life.

Under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution of Pakistan, which sets the precondition for a member of parliament to be ‘sadiq and ameen’ (honest and righteous), former prime minister and PMLN chief Nawaz Sharif was disqualified by the SC bench on July 28, 2017, in references about the Panama Papers.

Similarly, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder was also disqualified under the same article in the Toshakhana case in 2023.

However, in June, last year, the then-coalition government passed an amendment to the Elections Act 2017, which limited the disqualification of lawmakers to five years.