Islamabad (Staff Report): The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday issued a detailed judgment on its verdict against the Election Act 2017 and the disqualification of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif as Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief.
The Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar authored the 51-page judgment on the verdict.
“To hold that a person who is disqualified to be king can nevertheless be given a freehand to operate as a kingmaker, who may despite lacking qualification and without going through the electoral process, act as a puppet master pull the strings and exercise political power vicariously would amount to making a complete mockery of the Constitution,” the SC observed in the ruling.
The detailed order emphasizes on the role of party leader as the linchpin around which the whole party structure revolves and seeks to uphold the same yardstick as mentioned for a legislator.
The judgment continued that the court had ruled earlier that the Constitution could not be bypassed by enacting another legislation.
It bears mentioning that the apex court had disqualified Pakistan Muslim League’s President Nawaz Sharif from steering the party on February 21 on a slew of petitions 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.
On February 20, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was disqualified from being the head of the PML-N.
