Daily Times

LAHORE: Justice Shahid Karim of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday issued notices to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and Federal Ministry of Law and Justice on a petition challenging the July 28 ECP notification that de-notified Nawaz Sharif as the prime minister.

The judge sought replies from the respondents within two weeks.

A local citizen, Ghulam Yasin, had moved the petition. Petitioner’s counsel AK Dogar submitted that on July 28, the ECP had de-notified Nawaz Sharif as member of the National Assembly. He claimed that the impugned notification was unconstitutional as the prime minister could only be removed by parliament by a no confidence motion under Article 95-A of the Constitution.

He said that Nawaz Sharif was elected as national assembly member through votes and as such his de-notification was unconstitutional. He requested the court to set aside the notification issued against Nawaz Sharif or suspend it till the decision on the petition.

Separately, a citizen Shoaib Saleem on Thursday filed a petition before the LHC, seeking disqualification of Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan on the basis of the Justice Najafi Report about Model Town incident.

The petitioner stated that the inquiry tribunal of Justice Ali Baqar Najafi in its report had stated that Shehbaz Sharif and Rana Sanaullah made false statements about the tragedy. He stated that tribunal in its report also observed that the Punjab Police had done exactly what “it went for”.

He stated that according to the report police, “actively” participated in the massacre. It further stated that keeping in view the facts and circumstances, the reader of the report can easily fix the responsibility of the unfortunate incident.

He stated that the inquiry tribunal had accused the Punjab government of concealing facts and hindering investigation while observing that its officials tried to cover up for each other, preventing the tribunal from arriving at a definitive conclusion. “The Model Town inquiry report clearly depicts in its conclusion that Shehbaz Sharif and Rana Sanaullah submitted false affidavits regarding the disengagement of police from the place of the occurrence,” he said.

He requested the court to declare both of them disqualified in the light of Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution and direct the Election Commission of Pakistan to de-notify them as members of Punjab Assembly.

Published in Daily Times, December 15^th 2017.