Legislators defaming army can be disqualified, says Shujaat

Published April 13, 2014
PML-N minister, Chaudhry Shujaat Husain. – File Photo
PML-N minister, Chaudhry Shujaat Husain. – File Photo

LAHORE: PML-Q chief Senator Chaudhry Shujaat Husain has said that those clamouring about Article 6 of the Constitution should also read Article 63(g), which states that any parliamentarian who tries to defame the armed forces or the judiciary will be disqualified.

Referring to some PML-N ministers’ statements, Chaudhry Shujaat said there was resentment in the army over an alleged campaign against it.

“The first requirement of law and justice is that all should be seen as equal without any prejudice,” he said in a speech at a lawyers’ convention on Saturday. Article 63(g) was applicable to ministers who were “maligning the army”, he said and asked the government why it was not taking any action against those ministers.

Chaudhry Shujaat also said: “We will not allow the Protection of Pakistan Bill to be passed in this form in the Senate.”

He said PML-Q had not been defeated in the last elections by votes but by the returning officers. “We would have no regrets if we had lost the elections through votes. If a judicial commission is set up or inquiry held, the rigging in the May 2013 elections would be proved.”

He said PML-Q was very much present at the grassroots and it should be made more active.

He said he expected the party’s lawyers’ wing to play its role where the government failed to ensure supremacy of the constitution and law. He said a legal cell had been set up in the Muslim League House to provide assistance to the poor.

He expressed the hope that the chief justice would take steps, including setting up a special cell, to save the overseas Pakistanis’ property from the land mafia.

The lawyers passed resolutions rejecting the Protection of Pakistan Bill and condemning murders of lawyers in Rawalpindi and Karachi.

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