By Muhammad Luqman
The Supreme Court of Pakistan has disqualified former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from holding office of President of ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) .
While announcing the verdict, the apex court on Wednesday declared that a person who doesn’t qualify to hold a public office under Article 62 and 63 of the constitution can not hold the office of president of any political party.
“Ineligible person cannot hold the office of party president,” the court said. SC has also annulled all decisions made by Nawaz Sharif as the party head.
It added that the tickets for Senate elections issued by him will now stand cancelled. The ruling party will now have to re-announce its candidates for the Senate polls that were scheduled on March 3.
The apex court also directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to remove Nawaz’s name from the column of party presidents. The Section 203 of the Election Act should be read with the Article 62 and 63 of the constitution, SC remarked.
Pakistan’s major political parties – including the PPP and the PTI – had challenged the Elections Reforms Act 2017, which paved the way for Sharif to become party head again after his disqualification from holding political office under Article 62 (1) (f) of the Constitution.
After hearing the petitions against Election Act of 2017 early on Wednesday, Supreme Court had reserved its verdict to decide the political fate of Nawaz Sharif.
In January 2018, SC had accepted the petitions for hearing against the Election Act of 2017. These petitions were filed by Awami Muslim League (AML), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and other political parties as well as groups of lawyers.
n July 2017, the top court had disqualified Nawaz Sharif from premiership in connection with Panama Papers case under Article 62. The five-judge larger bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa and comprising Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Gulzar Ahmed, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan had unanimously announced the decision.
