PAT challenges Nawaz Sharif’s election as PML-N president

LAHORE: The Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) on Wednesday approached the Supreme Court to declare the election of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif as PML-N president against the law.

Over half a dozen constitutional petitions have been filed in the apex court and high courts against the Election Bill 2017 which paved way for Sharif to head his party. The first petition was filed by Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rasheed in the Supreme Court.

Ishtiaq Chaudhry of PAT filed a petition in the apex court’s Lahore registry, contending that the Election Bill 2017, a clause of which allows a disqualified lawmaker to hold office of a political party, is against constitutional provisions and teachings of Islam. Under the law, a disqualified person has been given powers to get the law of his choice enacted by the legislators associated with his/her party, he added.

Any action in pursuance of the legislative clause would turn the country into a banana republic, he argued while requesting the court to declare it as illegal and strike down the notification of Nawaz Sharif’s election as party president.

On Tuesday, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the Electoral Reforms Bill, requesting it to restrain the PML-N from governing till it removes Sharif as its president and replace him with an eligible person.

Gauhar Nawaz Sindhoo of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had earlier petitioned the apex court, seeking to disqualify those members of the National Assembly under Article 62 of the Constitution who voted in favour of the controversial clause of the bill that paved the way for ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif to head ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).