(MENAFN- Gulf Times)
A Pakistan court on Thursday disqualified Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif for violating the country's election laws, in another major blow to the ruling party as it prepares for nationwide polls due later this year.
The ruling by the Islamabad High Court was the latest in a series of court decisions that have gone against the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party (PML-N).
Last July, its leader Nawaz Sharif was ousted from the premiership over graft allegations and then barred from politics for life by another decision earlier this month.
Asif -- who had earlier served as the country's minister of defence -- was found guilty of failing to declare several work permits in the United Arab Emirates, violating Pakistan's election laws.
"We declare that the respondent was not qualified to contest the General Election of 2013," read the court's ruling, referring to the country's last nationwide polls.
Sharif and his supporters have repeatedly denied allegations of corruption, suggesting the former prime minister and his party are the victims of a conspiracy driven by Pakistan's powerful military establishment.
Geo TV channel said Asif plans to appeal to the Supreme Court. It was not clear if Asif would have to step down from his post as foreign minister.
Usman Dar, a rival politician from Asif's constituency in the town of Sialkot, near the Indian border, filed a petition against Asif to have him disqualified over alleged possession of a work permit for the UAE.
"After today there is no place left for Khawaja Asif in Pakistan's politics," Dar, who is a member of the opposition Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, told reporters outside the court.
Dar contested the 2013 parliamentary elections as a PTI candidate but lost to Asif by a wide margin.
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