- PM Nawaz chairs high-level meeting at PM House
- Legal team believes Nawaz can survive disqualification
The top leadership of the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) on Friday decided to accept the verdict of the three-member Supreme Court bench in the Panama Papers case, to adopt reconciliation with the state institutions and would also follow a ‘go-slow’ policy in case of any worst scenario to consume maximum time keeping in view the upcoming Senate elections.
Soon after the proceedings of the Panama case ended, the ruling party’s top decision-making meeting was convened with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the chair. Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif had specially flown in from Lahore to attend the meeting.
Minister for Interior Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan did not attend the meeting despite being in the Punjab House which is only a few minutes’ drive from the Prime Minister’s House. Requesting not to be named, ruling party members said that the prime minister and other top leaguers were informed by the legal team that still there were chances that the prime minister could survive disqualification.
“However, the legal team informed the meeting that even if the prime minister is disqualified, even then the due process would take over a month under the law. Still the prime minister would have right to file a review against the court verdict which would again consume a lot of time,” the ruling party officials said.
They said that even if the review was rejected by the court and the disqualification of the premier was upheld, the court would have to send a reference to National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq to disqualify the prime minister. The speaker under the law then can withhold the reference upto 30 days after which the reference would automatically transmit to the Election Commission of Pakistan.
In case, then the ruling party would go for an in-house change to ensure attaining majority in the Senate for the first time in history in March 2018, the sources said. They said that the meeting also decided that the party would mobilise the party workers across the country to hold countrywide protest demonstrations if the prime minister would be disqualified. However, the protests would be peaceful.
They said that the meeting also decided to put all the mega development projects on a fast track so as to complete the same before the next general elections. “The meeting decided to complete maxim development projects so as the party could contest the next elections with a development agenda. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would be a major product to be highlighted in the upcoming elections,” they said.
During the meeting, the prime minister informed the meeting that he would like to go down in the history as a politician who worked day and night to ensure the continuity of the democratic process. “The premier said that he did not want to allow anyone sabotage the democratic system in the country. For this purpose, the prime minister said he was ready to render any sacrifice,” they concluded.
You have no choice. I would like to add that we should stop using word “corruption” for Mr Nawaz Sharif and his family. Instead word Bay Emani should be incorporated. Thank you.
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