ISLAMABAD: Will Shahid Khaqan Abbasi also have to go as the prime minister if the Supreme Court holds that Nawaz Sharif, on account of his disqualification imposed by it, was barred from nominating the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidates for the Senate and other elections?
It was nobody else but Nawaz Sharif, who had named Abbasi the PML-N’s nominee for the office of the prime minister after his July 28 Supreme Court-sanctioned disqualification.
At the time, he stood ousted as the PML-N president because under the then existing Representation of People’s Act or ROPA (which and seven other laws were later merged in the Election Act, 2017) a disqualified person was not legible to hold party office.
The Elections Act containing section 203, which removed the bar put on the disqualified person by the ROPA to be office bearer of a political party, had not been passed by that time.
Immediately after the July 28 judgment, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) asked the PML-N to elect a new president as Nawaz Sharif was no longer eligible to hold this position.
It was quickly done by the PML-N, dispensing with the lacuna, and Sardar Yaqoob Nasir was elected as the acting chief.
Apart from the detrimental impact that the impending apex court verdict may have on Abbasi as well as the PML-N’s Senate candidates for having been sponsored by disqualified Nawaz Sharif, its other three candidates for the National Assembly and Punjab legislature seats
elected over the past six months may also be likewise affected.
They include Nawaz Sharif’s spouse Begum Kulsoom, elected from NA-120 Lahore seat that fell vacant due to his disqualification; Pir Iqbal Shah, who returned from NA-154 Lodhran; and Chaudhry Haider Sultan Ali, elected from Chakwal, in three by-elections.
A slew of petitions including the one filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan have mainly challenged section 203 of the Elections Act in the Supreme Court.
This clause says every citizen, not being in the service of Pakistan, shall have the right to form or be a member of a political party or be otherwise associated with it or take part in its political activities or be elected as its office-bearer.
Where a person joins a political party, his name shall be entered in the record of the political party as a member and shall be issued a membership card, or any other document showing his membership.
A person shall not be a member of more than one political party at a time. A political party shall encourage women to become its members.
A member of a political party shall have the right of access to the records of the political party other than the record of another member.
By and large, section 203 is mirror of Article 17 of the Constitution, which says every citizen, not being in the service of Pakistan, shall have the right to form or be a member of a political party, subject to any reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the interest of the sovereignty or integrity of Pakistan and such law shall provide that where the federal government declares that any political party has been formed or is operating in a manner prejudicial to the sovereignty or integrity of Pakistan, the federal government shall, within fifteen days of such declaration, refer the matter to the Supreme Court whose decision on such reference shall be final.
Every political party shall account for the source of its funds in accordance with law. Its earlier clause reads every citizen shall have the right to form associations or unions, subject to any reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the interest of sovereignty or integrity of Pakistan, public order or morality.
Nawaz Sharif was disqualified under Article 62(1(f), which spells out only the qualifications for membership of Parliament and not the qualifications to be member or office bearer of a political party.
It says a person shall not be qualified to be elected or chosen as a member of Parliament unless he is sagacious, righteous, non-profligate, honest and “ameen”, there being no declaration to the contrary by a court of law.
Additionally, a large number of disqualification for membership of Parliament listed in Article 63 also place no bar on a person, declared ineligible so, to head a political party.
In the case of Nawaz Sharif, he can’t contest a public office till his disqualification stays.
Its period will be determined or will be left unsettled by the Supreme Court, which is separately hearing seventeen petitions for interpretation of Article 62(1)(f) on which it already has reserved its judgment.
