The Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC) was moved on Monday to oust Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Nawaz Sharif, his younger brother Shahbaz Sharif and party activist Khawaja Saad Rafiq from the forthcoming general election.
The trio was accused of staging an organised attack on the apex court in November 1997. Consequently a stay order was sought against polling in all the four constituencies in Lahore where they were contesting candidates.
Petitioner Shahid Orakzai, who had managed to re-open the attack case in
1999 while the Sharifs were still controlling the federation and Punjab,
told the court that the tribunal and the ECP were unable to
check Sharifs’ entry into parliament unless the Supreme Court made the
inquiry report public.
No less than six legislators of PML-N including National Hockey Coach Akhtar Rasool and TV Host Tariq Aziz were sentenced for contempt of court primarily because of their presence on the scene.
They are still barred to take part in election. However, the case against
Sharifs and others was “deferred” until the police conducted a thorough
probe into the incident. In view of the polls, the latest petitions
emphasizes quick action.
The Court was formally asked to issue a certified copy the police inquiry
report about the attack. The document has been intriguingly kept secret
since 2001 and its release was sought under the new Fundamental Right of
‘Access to Information’ inserted in the Constitution by the 18th Amendment.
The Sharifs were in exile when the Capital Police assembled the basic facts
about their involvement including evidence about a lunch prepared for the
attackers at Islamabad’s Punjab House.
The petition against Sharifs comes at a time when national attention was
focused on court proceedings against former President Pervez Musharraf who
is presently detained in his farm house while Sharifs are riding the tide.
If made public, the inquiry report may turn the tide.
The petition said the inquiry report was to be placed before a bench of the
Supreme Court currently hearing an election case instituted against Shahbaz
Sharif in 2002. The petition raised the question whether information in a
document on the record of the Supreme Court was valid for the purpose of
scrutiny of nominations. The court was informed that two election appeals
against the Sharif Brothers had been rejected by the Appellate Tribunal in
Lahore for non-verification of the information in the Inquiry Report.