PPP demands full bench of SC hear, decide PTI pleas

KARACHI: Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon and Law Adviser to Sindh Chief Minister Barrister Murtaza Wahab have urged the Supreme Court of Pakistan to take cognisance of the condemnable act on the part of the rogue elements associated with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to scale the walls of the building of Lahore Registry of the apex court in the previous night.

Sharjeel Memon and Barrister Wahab, who also serves as Karachi’s Administrator, made the request to this effect to the Supreme Court while addressing a joint press conference here on the lawn of Frere Hall on Saturday. The two provincial authorities demanded that a full bench of the Supreme Court should be constituted to hear the application filed by the PTI against the re-election of the Punjab Chief Minister. They claimed that the PTI had been exerting pressure upon the state institutions to get decisions in its favour without considering that everyone was equal before the constitution and the law. Nothing is more supreme than the constitution and law of the land, they said.

The Sindh information minister said that it was the emphatic demand of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) that a full court of the SC should hear and decide the application of the PTI. This issue shouldn’t be viewed in isolation. Memon said the PTI Chairman had been bent upon promoting hatred and commotion in the country as the SC should take cognisance of the issue. “Objective of Imran Khan is to pressurise the courts, the Election Commission, and the establishment to get favourable decisions,” he said. He claimed that earlier Imran Khan had used delaying tactics to prolong the probe into the foreign funding case pending against the PTI as later on he had started targeting the Election Commission. “Imran Khan started targeting the Chief Election Commissioner to create an excuse in case of an unfavourable judgment in the foreign funding case so as to say in future that such an anti-PTI verdict has come because of his stance against the head of the Election Commission,” he said.

The Sindh information minister drew a comparison between the earlier letter written by PTI Secretary-General Asad Umar and the latest letter sent by the chief of Pakistan Muslim League-Q Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain. He said the earlier letter written by Umar had been used to unseat 20 MPAs while the latest action taken on the basis of Hussain’s letter wasn’t likened by the PTI leadership.

“This shouldn’t be the case that special judgments should be given in favour of the PTI while a separate law is present for the rest of the country,” he said. Memon said that neither any accountability reference was prepared by the National Accountability Bureau nor any probe was conducted into the case pertaining to BRTS in Peshawar despite a relevant judgment in this regard by the Peshawar High Court.

He said the national institutions failed to hold the PTI chairman accountable for the corrupt practices of his party. Memon was of the view that Imran Khan had been doing propaganda against all the state institutions. He claimed that the new coalition government in the country hadn’t taken any action, which could be viewed as victimisation on political grounds. “But it is now high time that both the federal and Sindh governments should decide to take action against anyone who unduly targets the state institutions and their heads,” said Memon. He recalled that the NAB and other agencies had come into action against the Opposition leaders in the past regime whenever they criticise the PTI’s government.

Barrister Wahab recalled that seven votes had been rejected by Muzaffar Hussain Shah when Yusuf Raza Gillani of PPP had been contesting the election of Senate chairman. At that time the PTI had been of the view that the ruling of the Presiding Officer (to reject seven votes) couldn’t be challenged in court, said the CM’s Law Adviser.

He said that Article 63(A) of the Constitution duly empowered the head of a political party to give direction to the lawmakers of his party. He said that Chaudhry Shujaat was the duly elected head of his party. Barrister Wahab said the lawmakers of PMLQ should be unseated in the same manner 20 lawmakers of the PTI had been disqualified.