ISLAMABAD: PML-N leaders remained hopeful that the party supremo Nawaz Sharif will return to Pakistan and even lead the election campaign despite the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the law to expand the scope of a review petition.

The court said the parliament had gone beyond its legislative competence by enacting the Supreme Court (Review of Judge­ments and Orders) Act, 2023.

The decision prompted a sharp rebuke from PML-N leaders who assailed the verdict, calling it a “contempt of parliament”. Leading the outcry, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said parliament was empowered to make laws and this was the first time in history that legislation was stopped in anticipation.

“I have not seen it happening anywhere in the world,” the prime minister said during an interview with Samaa TV on Friday.

He said there was no restriction on the PML-N supremo’s right to contest the election as he had completed his five-year disqualification period.

“As far as Nawaz Sharif is concerned, the law is in the field now under which the maximum disqualification period is five years. There is no restriction on Nawaz Sharif [to contest the election] as he has completed his five-year disqualification.”

The new law promulgated by parliament had overwritten the previous law, the PM said, while referring to an amendment to the Elections Act, 2017 — passed by the parliament earlier this year — limiting the disqualification of lawmakers to five years with retrospective effect.

Former interior minister and PML-N Punjab President Rana Sanaullah claimed the judgement was “beyond the Supreme Court’s constitutional jurisdiction” and clearly “an encroachment on the parliament’s domain”. Talking to a TV channel, he said the court had become so politicised that people start predicting verdicts soon after the formation of benches.

It is parliament’s right to make laws and this power cannot be taken away, Mr Sanaullah said, adding that parliament had framed the Constitution under which the Supreme Court came into existence. The incoming parliament can place curbs on the Supreme Court’s powers if it commits contempt of parliament and encroaches upon its jurisdiction, the PML-N leader warned.

“What will happen if parliament amends the law to take away the power of the Supreme Court to interpret the Constitution and examine a law,” he asked. He also said the decision doesn’t, in any way, hinder Mr Nawaz’s plan to return and he will arrive next week and lead PML-N’s election campaign.

Former law minister Azam Nazeer Tarar also termed the judgement “an interference in parliament’s jurisdiction”. The Constitution has laid down rules for all state organs called the trichotomy of powers.

“Courts interfere in parliament’s jurisdiction again and again and give verdicts that put a curb on its supremacy […] this is not a good tradition,” he lamented. “This weakens state’s institutions and not strengthens them”.

He said the judgement will not affect the prospects of Mr Nawaz’s return to electoral politics as his lifetime disqualification had been shortened to five years.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2023