“Frivolous”

SC rejects PTI’s Panama petition

THE Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) petition seeking disqualification of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from his office and the National Assembly.

The court’s Registrar Office observed that the PTI’s petition seemed to be “frivolous” within the contemplation of Order XVII Rule 5 of the Supreme Court Rules, 1980.

The PTI on Monday moved the Supreme Court for disqualification of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, his son-in-law MNA Muhammad Safdar and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar under Article 184(3) of the Constitution through its counsels Naeem Bukhari, Hamid Khan and others on behalf of party chief Imran Khan.

“This petition prima facie appears to be a frivolous petition within the contemplation of Order XVII Rule 5 of the Supreme Court Rules, 1980”, the court order stated.

“Certificate provided at page 26-A of this Constitution Petition does not fulfill the requirements of a Certificate as required under Rule 6 of Order XXV of the Supreme Rules, 1980,” it added. “This petition prima facie appears to be a frivolous petition within the contemplation of Order XVII Rule 5 of the Supreme Court Rules, 1980”, the order detailed.

“The petitioner is directly invoking the extraordinary jurisdiction of the Supreme Court under Article 184(3) of the Constitution, which is not permissible in terms of judgment reported as 1998 SCMR 793 (Zulfiqar Mehdi. Vs. PIA, etc),” added the court order. After filing the plea, PTI’s counsel Bukhari while talking to media persons on Monday said, “We have submitted the petition with the court’s registrar office which would decide if it is maintainable.”

Bukhari claimed that the petition was flawless and records of previous speeches made by Prime Minister Sharif were also enclosed. He said that the petition was based on the prime minister’s May 16 speech delivered on the floor of the National Assembly. “A statement delivered on the floor of an assembly possesses prestige,” he said, adding that there were a lot of contradictions between the facts and claims made by Mr Sharif.

Naeemul Haq, a spokesperson for the PTI, said his party believed that on the basis of the evidence presented before the court, Sharif was no more eligible to be the prime minister. “We plea to the Supreme Court to review the evidence, documents and the contradictions, we have raised and provide justice to the entire nation,” concluded Haq, who was accompanying Bukhari.

In April, the largest document leak, Panama Papers, had initially named some 200 and later on 400 more people, including businessmen and politicians from Pakistan, the family members of Premier Nawaz Sharif included in the list for establishing offshore companies in a tax haven.