ISLAMABAD, March 21: The federal government is again approaching the Supreme Court, this time to seek suspension of its Feb 25 order disqualifying the Sharif brothers from electoral politics until review petitions already filed against their ineligibility are decided.

“On the instructions of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani we are moving an application before the Supreme Court with a request to suspend the operation of its decision of disqualifying the Sharif brothers,” Deputy Attorney General Agha Tariq Mehmud told Dawn.

The application, which was to be moved on Saturday, will now be filed on Tuesday.

The Supreme Court last month disqualified the Sharif brothers from contesting any election or holding public office by dismissing appeals of the federal government against the June 23, 2008, order of the Lahore High Court holding them ineligible to run for public offices.

As a consequence, Shahbaz Sharif had lost the office of the Punjab chief minister and Nawaz Sharif was barred from contesting elections.

The decision to file the application was taken after the PML-N leadership invited the prime minister to a luncheon meeting on Sunday.

The suspension of the Supreme Court ruling will facilitate early lifting of governor’s rule in Punjab, imposed on February 25. “Since the only ground for imposing governor’s rule was disqualification of the chief minister, the suspension of the order will mean immediate restoration of the chief minister and functions he was performing before disqualification,” said a constitutional expert.

On Thursday, the federal government had filed four review petitions in the Supreme Court requesting it to undo its decision of disqualifying the Sharif brothers.
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