Pakistan Views

The federal government on Wednesday will file a petition in the Supreme Court against the verdict of Lahore High Court (LHC) which on Monday disqualified the PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif from contesting by-elections from NA-123.

Speaking to the media persons at the Supreme Court on Tuesday, Raja Abdul Rehman, the Deputy Attorney General (DAG), said that competent authorities had decided to challenge the decision of the LHC in the apex court.

Earlier, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani announced that the federation would challenge the verdict of LHC in the Supreme Court. The DAG said the petition was to be filed on Tuesday but due to non-availability of some documents and official procedures the petition would be filed on Wednesday. The attested copy of the LHC decision made the delay in filing the petition, he added.

Syed Khurram Shah had filed a petition under Article 184-3 of the Constitution in LHC against the candidature of Shahbaz Sharif, whereas Noor Elahi had filed a petition against Nawaz Sharif. The Sharif brothers did not contest the case on the ground that they did not accept the ‘PCO judges’.

The high court was proceeding ex parte against them after turning down applications by several of their supporters, including lawyers and the speaker of the provincial assembly, to become a party to the case. Rehman said that the petition filed by Khurram Shah was malafide as he was neither a voter nor a candidate from the constituency, for that reason he was not competent to file any such petition, he added.

He said the election matters can only be challenged under Article-225 of the Constitution and Election Commission is the authority to decide the issues pertaining to elections. He said that during the proceedings of the case at LHC while representing the federation he had argued that the petition was in violation of the constitutional provisions, therefore, it should be rejected and Nawaz Sharif should be allowed to contest the by-election.