Ijaz Kakakhel Islamabad
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Tuesday said that the judiciary should be made accountable for disqualifying former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Yousuf Raza Gilani from holding public office.
He blasted the judiciary while addressing the National Assembly session here on Tuesday.
Asif’s statement came hours after Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial remarked that the political parties wanted to “pick and choose” the bench for “desired judgements”.
The top judge passed the remarks as the Supreme Court resumed hearing the petitions challenging the law clip ping his office’s powers.
Pakistan Muslim League-N supremo Nawaz Sharif stepped down as the prime minister in July 2017 after being disqualified from holding public office by the top court in a landmark decision on the infamous Panama Papers case.
Announcing its historic verdict, the five-member bench unanimously disqualified the three-time prime minister for failing to disclose his un-withdrawn receivables constituting assets from UAE-based Capital FZE in his nominations papers for the 2013 General Election, stating that this meant he was not ‘honest’ and ‘truthful’, as per the Constitution.
