IHC judges’ letter: PM considering advising president to help resolve issue, says Sanaullah

KARACHI: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah has said that the prime minister could advise the president to play his role in resolving the issue related to the letter authored by six Islamabad High Court (IHC) judges.

Speaking to Geo News programme “Naya Pakistan” host Shahzad Iqbal on Friday, he said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has been thinking about the option of advising the president to play his constitutional role to resolve the issue that arose after the six serving judges of the IHC chose to write a joint letter to the Supreme Judicial Council.

Sanaullah opined that an out-of-court method had to be sought to resolve the issue, as someone taking the witness stand in the courtroom couldn’t resolve it.

He said the president of Pakistan is in such a constitutional position that he can play a role in resolving this issue. “I cannot say that the prime minister has made up his mind on this issue, but I have talked to him on this issue, showing that the prime minister could advise the president to play his role to resolve this matter,” said Sanaullah.

He said the relevant institutions and stakeholders should sit in one place to amicably resolve such contentious issues, as this is the only viable way out of such a problem.

The prime minister’s adviser said he had talked with the PM on this issue, and he (the PM) was of the view that the state of affairs in the country couldn’t be improved if the status quo prevailed any further over such issues.

He also stated that he didn’t think that press conferences were being held on this issue in an organised manner. He, however, conceded that a tense situation had been evolving on this issue that could lead to confrontation in the country. “On one side there is government, the judiciary is on the other side and the third party to this situation is the establishment, which is being targeted. The current situation favours no one, as it would prove embarrassing to everyone,” he said.

Sanaullah clarified that the lawmakers and parliamentarians appearing in the press conferences were not bound to follow the government’s directives. “These people said whatever they deemed suitable to talk about in the current circumstances,” he said.

He said leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf also appeared in the media and resorted to “aerial firing”, and people from the government’s side also spoke in reaction.

The name-calling on the part of the PTI people when they talked about the chief justice of Pakistan shows that they don’t give due respect to the judiciary, he remarked.

Sanaullah said that it was the resolve of the PM to steer the country out of the crisis, as such matters could pose a hindrance. “Everyone must leave behind the past and start anew from today,” he said. If the honourable judges who authored the letter state that certain events have been occurring and they should not be repeated in the future, then such this could be achieved, he said.