Shehbaz need not resign as PM after SC ruling, says Nasir Shah

The situation after the Supreme Court’s judgment in the case related to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) reserved seats does not warrant the resignation of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Sindh Planning & Development, and Energy Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah said this on Saturday as he addressed a press conference.

He said he was surprised that the apex judiciary’s judgment came in favour of the PTI although the PTI was not a party to the case.

He said the activists of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had always honoured the courts despite the fact that the judiciary had deprived them of their founding leader. He recalled that the late Benazir Bhutto, President Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur did not get justice from courts.

The energy minister mentioned that the PPP had failed to get justice from the courts when Yousuf Raza Gilani was dismissed as the prime minister.

Shah was of the view that the apex judiciary had given an ambiguous judgment in the case related to the reserved seats in the assemblies.

He raised the question of whether or not action would be taken under the Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution against the Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) lawmakers who would submit fresh affidavits after the Supreme Court’s recent judgment. “We will continue to show respect to the judiciary and other institutions although we have reservations about yesterday’s judgment.”

He said the Election Commission of Pakistan could not be blamed if the PTI had failed to properly conduct its intra-party polls as per the Elections Act.

The energy minister predicted that the next general elections would be held on time.

Shah also recalled that after the last general elections, the PPP had offered the PTI/SIC to form a coalition government in the country. He added that later, the PPP decided to lend support to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) for the cause of democracy despite the fact that the PML-N had formed an alliance in Sindh to contest the general elections against the PPP.

He said a political crisis could have emerged warranting fresh polls in the country had the PPP decided not to support the PML-N in the aftermath of the February 8 general elections.

Answering a question, Shah said that during its rule in Sindh since 2008, the PPP had spent billions of rupees on the development of Karachi but the opposition political parties did not acknowledge that fact.

He said that owing to this hard work, the PPP had clinched Karachi’s mayoral post and secured a greater majority of seats in the last general elections from Sindh compared to previous polls.