ISLAMABAD: The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) wants the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC) and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to hold early hearings of various petitions filed against Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leaders, including party head Imran Khan.

Minister of State for Capital Administration and Development (CADD) Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry and PML-N MNA Daniyal Aziz while speaking at a news conference here on Tuesday expressed their reservations over the delay in the hearing of the petitions which the party members had filed against PTI chairman Imran Khan and secretary general Jahangir Tareen seeking their disqualification from the assembly for allegedly submitting false declaration before the ECP and concealing their assets and existence of offshore companies.

Though the two PML-N leaders showed restraint and avoided direct criticism and attack on the judiciary and the ECP, they expressed their concerns and surprise over the delay in the hearing of the cases against the PTI leaders.

A former PML-N MNA from Rawalpindi, Hanif Abbasi, through his counsel Muhammad Akram Sheikh had last year filed a petition against the two PTI leaders before the Supreme Court whereas the ECP has been hearing a foreign funding case against the PTI filed by a party dissident and a founding member Akbar S. Babar for the past over two years and reserved its judgement for May 8, but only on the maintainability of the petition.

Mr Abbasi had also moved an application before the Supreme Court in February seeking early hearing of the case, pleading that the question or controversy involved in the petition was time sensitive as the right to currently hold the membership of the National Assembly and the qualification/disqualification of the respondents may be frustrated and rendered meaningless once their tenure expires.

Besides this, the ECP has not yet received any response from the PTI chairman on a number of notices for violating the code of conduct during the recently held by-elections in various constituencies. The ECP has also issued a contempt notice to Mr Khan for passing objectionable remarks against the commission, but yet to get any response on it.

PML-N MNA Daniyal Aziz alleged that the PTI chief had stated on the floor of the National Assembly that he had purchased the London flat through the money he had earned from playing cricket and that he had brought the money to the country through banking channels after selling it. He said that later Mr Khan stated that he had given the money to his ex-wife Jemima Khan. He alleged that the PTI chief had not provided any document to prove his claims about the purchasing and selling of the flat or giving money to Jemima Khan.

The two PML-N leaders lashed out at Mr Khan for demanding resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on the basis of dissenting notes of two judges of the Supreme Court in the Panama Papers case verdict.

Dr Tariq Fazal said Pakistan was the only country where the Supreme Court had heard the Panama Papers case. He said the PTI chief had even attempted to pressurise the judges through his statements on the Panama Papers issue. He asked the PTI to respect the Supreme Court’s verdict which had called for the formation of a joint investigation team (JIT) to further probe charges against the prime minister and his family members.

Lashing out at Mr Khan for using improper language against the prime minister, Dr Tariq Fazal said the Panama Papers case verdict had in fact increased respect of the prime minister.

“Instead of respecting the court’s orders, they have started beating the drums on the dissenting notes of the two judges,” the minister said. He said that even the chief justice of Pakistan had to take notice of the “propaganda campaign” which the PTI had launched on the basis of the dissenting notes of the judges. He reminded that Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Saqib Nisar had told Mr Khan, when the latter appeared before a three-judge bench in connection with another case on Monday, that judges around the world wrote notes of dissent on judgements, but the way they were being discussed in Pakistan was unprecedented.

The minister said the CJP had actually indirectly declared that Mr Khan was taking the country towards disorder.

The CJP had deplored the way the verdict was being discussed in the absence of proper legal context and an understanding of the law and called on the PTI chairman to help foster stability in the country following the landmark ruling in the Panama Papers case.

Responding to a question, the PML-N leaders denied reports in some circles that the government had recently allotted a plot to a judge, who was a part of the five-member SC bench that heard the Panama Papers case, in Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2017

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