The court ruled that Dr Qadri had failed to prove his stance and sincerity. A three-judge bench of the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said in its short order that the petitioner failed to invoke the jurisdiction of the court in the instant matter and was unsuccessful in proving his locus standi - right to file public interest litigation in the apex court.
---- Qadri's petition thrown out for he fails to establish locus standi, prove sincerity
---- He accused of showing utter disrespect for the Chief Justice; petitioner's conduct found to be beyond the limits of acceptability and fairness
Recalling the court judgement PLD 2012 SC1089, the court ruled in its short order, "Under the peculiar circumstances Dr Qadri has no locus standi to claim relief as it has been prayed for in the petition, inter alia, for the reasons that being a holder of dual citizenship, he is not qualified (disqualified) to contest the election to the Parliament in view of the constitutional bar under Article 63(1)(c) of the Constitution".
During the course of hearing, the bench questioned Qadri's loyalty given his oath of allegiance to Queen Elizabeth as the titular head of Canada. In response, Dr Qadri stated that if Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry's loyalty to the apex court could not be termed suspicious as he took an oath from Musharraf in 2005 under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) then his oath of allegiance to Queen Elizabeth could not be questioned either.
The Chief Justice observed that former dictator Pervez Musharraf was the President in 2005 and every Chief Justice took oath under the president. The court warned Dr Qadri of consequences of addressing the bench in such a manner and ruled, "it is essential to note that at the time of concluding his arguments on the points Dr Qadri started making uncalled for aspersions against the members of the Bench, which are tantamount prima facie to undermine its authority calling for action against him for Contempt of Court under Article 204(3) of the Constitution read with section 3 of the Contempt of Court Ordinance, 2003".
The bench exercised restraint and decided not to proceed against Dr Qadri under the principle that such jurisdiction had to be exercised sparingly on a case to case basis. During the proceedings, the Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Irfan Qadir submitted that focus must be on the petition and not on the character of the petitioner. Muhammad Munir Piracha, the counsel for ECP, informed the bench that in Lahore on December 23, 2012 Dr Qadri in his speech had called for delaying elections for two years; however, Dr Qadri denied this allegation.