KARACHI: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Tuesday said his government would try to create consensus in parliament for the repeal of the constitutional clause through which then premier Nawaz Sharif was disqualified by the Supreme Court.

“The interpretation of Article 62(1)(f) is ambiguous...it can be repealed with the consensus of all political parties,” PM Abbasi told Geo News anchor Hamid Mir during an interview.

Article 62 of the Constitution pertains to the qualifications for membership of parliament and its sub-clause 1-f reads: “A person shall not be qualified to be elected or chosen as a member of Majlis-i-Shura (parliament) unless ‘he is sagacious, righteous and non-profligate, honest and ameen, there being no declaration to the contrary by a court of law’.”

On July 28, a five-judge larger bench of the apex court declared the then premier “not honest” under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution. The SC disqualified Mr Sharif from holding the public office after he was found to have furnished a false declaration under solemn oath and failed to disclose his receivables — constituting assets from Capital FZE — in his nomination papers under Section 12(2)(f) of the Representation of People Act 1976.

PM Abbasi was asked whether the Pakistan Muslim League-N government in the remaining 10 months of its term was considering bringing an amendment, one like the 18th Amendment adopted during the previous government of the Pakistan Peoples Party.

The PM replied in the affirmative, saying his party would initiate it in parliament and expressed the hope that all parties would support it. He said Article 62(1)(f) was in­­serted in the Constitution through the controversial Eighth Amend­ment (during the regime of Gen Ziaul Haq) and its interpretation was vague and ambiguous. So if all political parties reached consensus then this article could be repealed, he added.

Sharif’s GT Road plan

Terming Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan a “professional critic”, Mr Abbasi clarified that Wednesday’s plan by the ousted PM to travel to Lahore via GT Road was not a protest.

“Nawaz Sharif is going his home [in Lahore]. It was the common desire of all MNAs that he [Sharif] passes through their respective constituencies so that people could express solidarity with their party,” he said.

Mr Abbasi repeatedly termed Mr Sharif’s disqualification a conspiracy. When asked as to who had hatched the conspiracy, he said he was not saying that the apex court had conspired or someone else. “Any matter which causes harm to the country would be seen as a conspiracy.”

When the interviewer pointed out that the loadshedding duration had increased, the PM said: “There would be no loadhshedding in the country after November 2017. But problems may be faced at the local level.”

He said there was a need for a broader dialogue between political parties so that a national charter, like the Charter of Democracy between the PPP and PML-N, could be achieved.

He defended the size of his cabinet, saying there were 43 ministers against the constitutional limitation of 49.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2017