ISLAMABAD: An application submitted to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday requested that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) should be denotified, saying that a “party cannot remain registered in the name of a disqualified person”.
The request which was submitted by Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) and Advocate Makhdoom Muhammad Niaz stated that a disqualified person cannot lead or become a member of a political party, however “Nawaz Sharif is incessantly presiding over political gatherings from the PML-N platform.”
The plea further stated that PML-N was registered with the ECP in the name of Nawaz Sharif. Now that Nawaz had been disqualified by the Supreme Court (SC), the party cannot remain registered in his name anymore.
“Thereby, ECP must denotify PML-N until the Supreme Court’s decision of July 28, 2017, is suspended following a review appeal. Until the decision is not suspended, PML-N cannot remain enrolled at ECP,” the application read further.
Last week, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was disqualified as the head of PML-N. A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar and comprising of Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Ijazul Ahsan, issued a short order on petitions filed against Nawaz for holding the position of party president even after his disqualification in the Panama Papers case.
In its five-page order, read by Chief Justice Nisar, the court declared that any person who was disqualified under articles 62 or 63 of the Constitution was also barred from holding the position of “party head”.