MULTAN: Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal has said that he will consider the Supreme Court independent when it will send former president and military dictator retired Gen Pervez Musharraf to Adiala jail.

Talking to reporters here on Saturday, he said that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was concerned about the dignity of the judiciary.

“If the Supreme Court becomes controversial, it will be a loss equal to the disqualification of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif,” the minister said.

Federal Minister for Railways Saad Rafiq advanced Mr Iqbal’s argument by saying that state institutions should avoid interfering in each other’s domains. While the judiciary should be respected, it should also respect other institutions, Mr Rafiq said in his separate talk with the media.

Mr Iqbal said that if the Supreme Court wanted to maintain its honour, it should punish retired Gen Musharraf like it had punished Nehal Hashmi.

“Sending contempt notices to political workers like Talal Chaudhry will not help to restore the dignity of the Supreme Court. Instead it should summon former president Musharraf and take action against him for damaging the constitution, making the then chief justice and his children hostage and manhandling him,” he said.

State organs should stop interfering in each other’s domain, says Rafiq

The minister said that the PML-N believed that the decisions against Mr Sharif and the party leadership were not based on justice.

“Similarly, people also have reservations over the decision to disqualify Mr Sharif. If raising voice against it is contempt of court, then it should also be applied to people who have been participating in public gatherings of the PML-N, including the rally on G.T. Road, to express their concern over the judgement,” he said.

He said that not only the PML-N but the entire world had expressed concern over the disqualification of Mr Sharif.

“We should avoid controversies and the institutions should work within their constitutional limits,” Mr Iqbal said.

He said that people would think that pre-poll rigging was being committed if the PML-N continued to be made target.

“From Karachi to Gwadar no one is ready to believe that the actions being taken against the PML-N and Nawaz Sharif are based on justice,” the minister said, adding that the judiciary would become controversial by taking such decisions.

Saad Rafique said that the “system of revenge” should come to an end and no hurdle should be created in the working of the institutions, including the parliament.

He said that his party respected the judiciary and he believed that judiciary should not be criticised.

“We do not criticise the judiciary rather we respect it. But while the judiciary should not be criticised, one could disagree with the decisions of the court,” he said.

He said that elected representatives should be disqualified only by the public.

He advised political parties to avoid levelling allegations against each other and dragging the state institutions into political affairs.

Mr Rafique said that other institutions should realise that it was the parliament and the politician who would run the country.

The minister said that his party had hoped that the situation would change with the change of the chairman of the National Accountability Bureau but there was no such sign yet.

“I still have hope that this system of victimisation will come to an end as the newly appointed NAB chairman is an upright and unbiased person,” he said.

The minister said that besides the leader of the opposition, leaders of different parties should also be consulted on the formation of caretaker set-up so that no one could object to the caretaker set-up and later to the results of the elections.

Mr Rafiq said that violation of the Charter of Democracy would create issues.

He said that the change in the Balochistan government was the result of a “joint adventure”.

“The elements that are playing a dirty game over the coming Senate election will fail. Results of the election will prove who played foul,” he said.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2018