LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) is set to elect its former president Nawaz Sharif’s brother, and Punjab Chief Minister (CM), Shehbaz Sharif to the office of PML-N president in the party’s general council session.
According to sources, all the party was united in its support for Shehbaz Sharif who is most likely to be party’s candidate for premiership in case of a victory in the coming general elections. Although Nawaz will continue to assert his influence as the party chief, formally it will be his younger brother who will run the show.
It is expected that the ruling party will be holding the Senate elections right after the Senate elections, in which it won’t be able to take part since Supreme Court (SC) in its judgment striking down the amendment by the parliament to allow a person disqualified to be member of parliament as a party head, ultimately causing the removal of Nawaz Sharif as PML-N President and annulment of all his decisions as party chief. Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had refused to accept PML-N’s plea to postpone the elections in view of the new scenario and extend the date for the nomination of papers under the new party president’s name.
However, PML-N candidates will still be contesting the elections as independent candidates. The election is due to be held on March 3.
Read here: SC dethrones Nawaz again
The verdict announced by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar, while heading a three-member Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Ijazul Ahsan, declared Article 17 of the Elections Act, 2017, which allowed Nawaz Sharif to regain his party’s top office after being disqualified by the apex court in the Panama Papers case, as null and void and directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to remove Nawaz Sharif’s name as president of the PML-N from its records.
The verdict also ruled that all steps taken, orders passed, directions given and documents issued by Nawaz Sharif as party head after the July 28, 2017, verdict of the apex court disqualifying him as member of the parliament will be deemed to be nullified.
The verdict read out by the CJP stated that a party’s presidency was directly related to the parliament. The verdict held that an individual who has been disqualified under articles 62 and 63 of the constitution is not eligible to sign any document needed to nominate people to the upper or lower house of parliament.
The verdict noted that the Elections Act, 2017, empowers a party head to perform multifarious functions that have direct nexus with the process of elections to the parliament and to matters relating to the affairs of political parties having parliamentary presence.
The court held and declared that provisions of sections 203 and 232 of the Elections Act, 2017, are liable to be read, construed and interpreted subject to the provisions of articles 62, 63 and 63-A of the constitution.
It has also been declared that any person who suffers from lack of qualification under Article 62 or disqualification under Article 63 of the constitution is debarred from holding the position of party head by whatever name called and prohibited from exercising any of the powers provided in Article 63-A of the constitution as ‘party head’ or any other power in the said capacity under any law, rule, regulation, statute, instrument or document of any political party.
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