Two convicts awarded PML-N tickets

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has awarded two party tickets to Akhtar Rasool Chaudhry from Lahore and Sardar Naseem Khan from Rawalpindi despite the fact that they had been convicted by the Supreme Court and disqualified from contesting the general elections for storming the Supreme Court building in Islamabad on November 28, 1997.

While Akhtar Rasool Chaudhry has been awarded the party ticket from PP-148 Lahore, Sardar Naseem Khan has been fielded on the PML-N ticket from PP-12 (Rawalpindi). They were amongst the six PML-N legislators convicted by a full bench of the Supreme Court in the year 2000 for storming the apex court building during the second tenure of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Led by Sharif’s political secretary Colonel (R) Mushtaq Tahirkheli, an unruly mob, which was raising slogans against Chief Justice Syed Sajjad Ali Shah, ransacked his courtroom and forced him to adjourn the hearing of a contempt of court cases against PM Nawaz. In January 1998, a full bench of the apex court framed contempt of court charges against two PML-N members of the National Assembly and four members of the Punjab Assembly.

Those who were charged with offence of the contempt of Court under the Contempt of Court Laws included MNAs Tariq Aziz and Mian Munir and MPAs Chaudhry Akhtar Rasool, Sardar Naseem Khan, Chaudhry Tanvir Khan, and Mahmood Akhtar.

But the apex court bench appointed to hear the contempt case against PML-N leaders, which was led by Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid, finally acquitted all the six accused on February 25, 1998, due to the lack of evidence. But on a plea moved by journalist Shahid Orakzai, which was treated as suo moto review, another five member bench of the apex court convicted in 2000 all the six under Article 204 of the Constitution of the Contempt of Court Act, 1976, after finding them guilty of bringing authority of the Supreme Court into disrespect.

As Akhtar Rasool and Mian Munir decided to contest the 2008 general elections from Lahore on PML-Q tickets, their nomination papers were rejected by returning officers on the basis of their convictions in the Supreme Court storming case which made them ineligible to run for the elections. As they approached the election tribunal of the Lahore High Court, the tribunal dismissed the appeals of Chaudhry Akhtar Rasool from PP-149 and Mian Munir from NA-122 on December 11, 2007 for being convicted in the case of attacking the Supreme Court. A week later, on December 18, 2007, a full bench of the Lahore High Court, while upholding the decision of the election tribunal and returning officer, confirmed their disqualification from the election race.

Almost 15 months later, on March 22, 2010, while deciding Akhtar Rasool’s review plea against his conviction and subsequent disqualification to contest elections, the Supreme Court upheld his conviction. A six-member larger bench led by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry dismissed his plea seeking review of suo moto criminal original verdict.

The bench said a review was not filed in relevant time against original verdict and second review was not competent. Even otherwise, the court said, the contemnors were part of the crowd that gathered in and around the court building on November 28, 1997, and carried out acts of rowdyism, besides raising slogans and displaying banners against the judiciary.

However, the PML-N leadership’s decision to award party tickets to Akhtar Rasool and Sardar Naseem who had been convicted in the court storming case has surprised many, mainly because of the party’s repeated claims about its struggle to protect the respect and the independence of the judiciary. The PML-N has reiterated the same stance in the Election Manifesto 2013 by pledging to uphold the independence and the respect of the superior judiciary as guaranteed by the Constitution.