ISLAMABAD, Aug 2: A petitioner on Wednesday requested the Supreme Court to disqualify three ruling party stalwarts for their alleged involvement in the 1997 storming of the Supreme Court building before they have any role in the upcoming PML intra-party elections.

Filed under original jurisdiction of the apex court on fundamental rights, Shahid Orakzai has moved the apex court seeking disqualification of Senators Kamil Ali Agha, Mushahid Hussain Syed and Shehbaz Goshi, asking whether any person involved, accused or convicted for attacking the Supreme Court could be elected or nominated to hold any office of a political party.

After protracted dispute between the Nawaz Sharif government and the judiciary, the PML activists and loyalists on Nov 28, 1997 had stormed the Supreme Court of Pakistan building to frustrate a contempt of court hearing against the then prime minister.

In his petition, Mr Orakzai pleaded that the conduct of the upcoming PML intra-party elections by the respondents under the Political Parties Order-2002 would amount to violating provisions of the law as well as Article 17 of the Constitution.

Unless the apex court instantly intervenes to exclude the respondents from the PML intra-party elections, any certification of the party elections under Section 12 of the PPO would merely be an eye wash, he contended.

So far the PML has not yet held a single ballot for the key offices in the four provinces, whereas the PPO insists that party office-bearers should be elected through ballot, he said.

He has also raised a question whether a political party that organizes an attack on the apex court to harass and threaten judges in the midst of a trial could continue to operate under the Constitution and the law.

Mr Orakzai has sought a direction against the Election Commission of Pakistan to proceed against persons involved in the infamous attack on the apex court if he was a member of parliament or office-bearer of a political party.

PML Central Election Coordination Committee Coordinator Senator Kamil Ali Agha, secretary-general Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, Shehbaz Goshi and Chief Election Commissioner are respondents.

In his petition, Mr Orakzai contended that Senator Agha was among the ring-leaders of PML-N and played a key role in organizing the criminal attack on the apex court.

On his identification among the hooligans, who gate crashed the court, Mr Agha was summoned by the Islamabad Police in 2000, not once but twice but he persistently refused to appear before the police inquiry ordered by the apex court to investigate the conspiracy, the petitioner alleged. “This unlawful absence speaks of his criminal collusion with the then Punjab chief minister Mian Shahbas Sharif, the mastermind behind the attack,” he alleged.

Likewise Shehbaz Goshi used to be a youth wing leader of the PML-N and the affiliated ‘Shahbaz Sharif Force’ was convicted by the Supreme Court during the attack case hearing, Mr Orakzai said.