PML-N to challenge Saad’s unseating in SC

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leadership on Wednesday decided to move the Supreme Court (SC) against the decision of the Election Tribunal (ET) which unseated Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique and ordered re-elections in NA-125, Lahore.
The decision was made at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and attended by senior party leaders and cabinet members including the affected leader, Khawaja Saad Rafique.
“The minister listened to his party aides and legal experts and opted to challenge the decision of the Election Tribunal in the Supreme Court,” Information Minister Senator Pervaiz Rashid and Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal said while addressing a joint press conference.
Senator Pervaiz Rashid said that Khawaja Saad Rafique, during the meeting, stated that he wanted to go to the court of the people. “The prime minister listened to Saad Rafique, other party leaders and legal experts and then made the decision,” he said.
Ahsan Iqbal said that in view of the legal opinion, it was decided that it was necessary to challenge the decision of the Election Tribunal otherwise a wrong precedent would be set and in future, anyone could cast doubts on election results under different pretexts.
Ahsan Iqbal refused to comment on the verdict of the Election Tribunal saying the PML-N had great respect for every institution and left it to the masses to decide.Ahsan Iqbal said the legal team was of the view that the points on which the tribunal had based its verdict must be contested on a legal and constitutional basis. They were of theview that if the judgment was not challenged, it would amount to setting a wrong precedent.
The minister said the PML-N believed in supremacy of the law and the Constitution and the case would be contested on legal and constitutional basis.He said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan was now celebrating the verdict of the Election Tribunal in NA-125 case. He said if the decision of the tribunal was being celebrated now, the question arose as to why Imran Khan wasted six months of the nation by agitating the issue from the container.
He said there were sufficient grounds to challenge the verdict as the tribunal clearly said there was neither an irregularity on the part of Khawaja Saad Rafique nor were the elections rigged. There was also no evidence of any nexus between the candidate and the polling staff for systematic rigging.
He pointed out that the PML-N not only performed well in the recent cantonment boards elections but also retained its National Assembly and provincial assembly seats in by-elections whereas Imran Khan’s party lost two seats from Peshawar and Mianwali in by-polls. “Imran Khan has to hold an inquiry into all these failures,” he said.
The minister said that there were some designs behind allegations of rigged elections such that the PTI top leader did not want to see economic agenda of the present government succeeded as he knew that he would not be able to win 2018 general elections.“Imran Khan is trying to confuse investors by claiming that 2015 is the year of general elections. He also made such claims last year,” Ahsan Iqbal said.