LAHORE: The Supreme Court decision of admitting for hearing petitions challenging the law allowing a disqualified person to head a party has irked the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, which alleges that “shoulders of judiciary are being used to accomplish [some] nefarious agenda”.

“Law making is the right of the parliament but some anti-people and anti-democracy elements have taken every political issue to the Supreme Court,” Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan says.

“They hold negative approach as they are taking political fight to the Supreme Court. They wish to pitch the apex court against the masses,” he says, requesting the Chief Justice of Pakistan to “recognize” the anti-democracy forces and check the move by rejecting the petitions.

Talking to members of the Punjab Assembly’s Press Gallery Committee here on Wednesday, the minister said that the CJP should reject the petitions with the aim that the parliament and the people should be allowed to decide political issues.

Law making parliament’s right: Sana

On Wednesday, the CJP overruled the objections raised by the apex court’s registrar office over the petitions against Election Act 2017 and admitted the same to determine their maintainability and legal aspects.

The registrar had asked the applicants, including PTI and Awami Muslim League, to approach a proper forum before moving the Supreme Court.

Launching an indirect attack on PTI Chairman Imran Khan, Rana Sana said if a man of “bad character” could head a party then why not a disqualified man.

Without naming names, he said verdicts of international courts were there regarding the “bad character” of the person while evidence against him was emerging from within the party.

Replying to a query, Sana said Imran Khan and Jehangir Tareen indirectly opposed the bill against the Election Act 2017 by not appearing for voting in the lower house of the parliament.

The National Assembly had on Tuesday rejected a bill with simple majority seeking to amend the Act that had paved way for Nawaz Sharif to be re-elected president of the PML-N despite his disqualification in the Panama Papers case.

The influential Punjab minister denied that development funds were used to manipulate results of the parliamentary voting on the bill.

Answering a question about former President Asif Zardari’s refusal to meet Mr Sharif, he said the PPP leader had the right to respond in the same coin but “he should not turn to destroying democracy against his earlier stance of destroying some other target due to which Nawaz Sharif had to cancel his meeting with Mr Zardari.”

The law minister earlier defended the companies the Punjab government had formed in various sectors, downplaying the reports about financial irregularities in the entities.

He claimed that these irregularities were also pointed out before these were to be committed by the internal system for monitoring working of the companies.

Those responsible for the irregularities, he added, were arrested after preliminary inquiries and imprisoned.

Published in Dawn, November 23rd, 2017