LAHORE, Oct 5: Will the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz review its stand towards the existing courts which it doesn’t recognise as constitutional as they had accepted the Provisional Constitution Order given by then army chief Gen Pervez Musharraf in November last year?

If not, will it direct the Punjab government of PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif to follow the same policy?

Sympathisers of the party are of the view that the leadership should change its stand about the courts. They think that the situation has changed drastically after most of the judges sacked by the PCO have accepted ‘reappointment’, impliedly admitting that their removal was justified.

Political observers say when the people whose cause was being upheld by the PML-N had changed their stand, there will be little justification left for the party to stick to their previous position. Also, they say, there’s no reason for the PML-N leadership not to accept the present courts when the Punjab government had quietly recognised them.

Decisions of the Punjab government are challenged before the courts every now and then and the advocate-general defends the government. And whatever decisions are given by courts, are accepted and implemented without reservations.

Therefore, what is right for the party government should not and could not be wrong for the party leadership. It is said that the party may discuss the matter during the next few days and take appropriate decision.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to take up the appeal against Mian Nawaz Sharif’s candidacy for a Lahore National Assembly seat on Oct 14. Since Mr Sharif doesn’t recognise the existing courts, he has not engaged any lawyer to defend him. The federal government, therefore, is defending the two-time prime minister.

The question is what will be the situation in case the apex court came up with a verdict against the PML-N chief. Party leaders say he will not accept it. “He will accept it only if it is in his favour”, said one leader who did not like to be named.

However, a senior lawyer said the verdict would be binding, no matter whether it was acceptable to the former prime minister or not. He recalled that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his Pakistan People’s Party had never accepted the Supreme Court’s decision under which he was awarded the capital punishment. However, the decision was enforced and Mr Bhutto was hanged on April 4, 1979.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif also faces a challenge to his membership of the Punjab Assembly. He was elected unopposed from a Layyah seat and administered oath as chief minister. However, he did not withdraw his candidature for another provincial seat in Rawalpindi – and was also elected.

Constitutional and legal experts say after his election from Rawalpindi, Mian Shahbaz Sharif had lost his Layyah seat. If the argument is accepted, his eligibility to continue as chief minister becomes the moot point in the presence of a controversial provision under which nobody can become chief minister or prime minister for a third time.

Some say when 160 million people of Pakistan approach the existing courts to get justice, the Sharifs should also have no reservations about them. Their principled stand about the status of the existing courts has been weakened by those very judges whose removal had brought the people out on the streets.