Nawaz Sharif's escalation as PML-N chief challenged in Islamabad High Court

Islamabad: The Islamabad High Court has admitted a petition aimed at preventing ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif from heading the PML-N. After admitting the petition on Tuesday, high court judge Aamer Farooq issued notices to Sharif, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Secretary, the Attorney General for Pakistan and others, Dawn reported. [caption id=“attachment_4127073” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Nawaz Sharif. AP[/caption] The same petitioner, who has challenged the Election Reforms Act (ERA) 2017, said through the recent petition that permitting a disqualified person to head a political party was against the spirit of the Constitution. The petition cited Secretary Law and Justice, Establishment Division, Cabinet Division, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) through its chairman and secretary, and Sharif as respondents. Sharif was disqualified as a member of the National Assembly through a verdict of the Supreme Court of Pakistan on 28 July, the petition said. The petitioner maintained that according to Article 5 of the Political Parties Ordinance (PPO) 2002, a disqualified person could not preside over any meeting of any political party.

Neither a disqualified person can become president of a party nor can head any political party, the petition said.

The petitioner argued that ERA 2017 was against the basic scheme of the Constitution as no law could be passed against the Islamic injunctions. Furthermore, this ERA to the context of allowing a disqualified person to head the party is also in contraventions of Quran and Sunnah. The petitioner said that a law should be made keeping in view legitimate needs of the people and not for a single person.