Minister for Interior Rana Sanaullah Sunday said the government was considering suspending the sentence of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Quaid and former prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif. talking to a news channel in Islamabad, Sanaullah said the government had the powers to commute, reduce or suspend anyone’s sentence.
“If an innocent person has been wrongly convicted, there is a way that the sentence is suspended and they are given a chance to approach the court in a proper way,” he added.
The minister said Nawaz Sharif will lead the next election campaign while Maryam will lead the mass mobilization drive. On the Punjab constitutional crisis, he said the government was considering making necessary changes to the law, says a news report. It got further complicated after the resignation of Usman Buzdar was rejected by the Governor of Punjab Omar Sarfaraz Cheema and yet Hamza Shahbaz was sworn in as news chief minister, several contradictory viewpoints emerged on Saturday on the apparent ‘constitutional crisis’ in the province.
As soon as a person is elected as prime minister or chief minister, the presiding officer who is presiding the session of that house, should then and there administer the oath of the office, said Rana Sanaullah. “This age old thing that even after you are elected, the oath will be administered in the Governor House where the ‘Lord Sb’ is sitting is a sign of slavery and should be abolished,” said Sanaullah. This law has been exploited and we should amend it as soon as possible, he said.
The minister confirmed that his name had not been removed from the Exit Control List. “My name was put on the ECL in a narcotics related case. We provided all the input and proved to the committee that the case was totally fictitious. It will be removed after the meeting of the committee, he said. Asked if NAB Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal will survive, the minister said, “I think he should not stay nor should we keep him.”
He has completed his tenure and this post is neither extendable nor re-appointable, the minister said.
Responding to a question about dissolution of the National Accountability Bureau, the minister said they have had a meeting where some participants opined that it should be abolished all together, while others believe it would hurt the government politically.