Blames ‘cabal of five’ for country’s situation
As the announcement of the date of the elections triggered a big debate in the country, Pakistan Muslim League-N Senior Vice-President and Chief Organiser Maryam Nawaz has asked the judiciary to assess its “basic responsibility” before evaluating the Election Commission of Pakistan on conducting the general polls in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“You sat down to evaluate the election commission’s responsibility. Definitely examine it, but have you ever assessed your own basic responsibility?” the politician asked, as she addressed a workers’ convention in Sargodha on Thursday.
Maryam’s demand came a day after Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial took a suo motu notice of an apparent delay in polls and formed a larger bench, headed by himself, to hear the case, the hearing of which began on Thursday.
Without taking any names, she asked: “Does the dam waley baba [former chief justice Saqib Nisar] know where Pakistan stands today? Do Baba Rehmat and [ex-CJP Asif Saeed] Khosa sahib know where the country stands today?”
In 2017 in the Panama Papers case, ex-CJP Khosa headed the five-member Supreme Court bench that disqualified the then-prime minister and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif.
Turning the aim of her critique back to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran and how he was facilitated by people in the then-establishment and judiciary, both before and during his government’s tenure, the PML-N leader spoke as their photographs ran on a screen behind her.
“The five people visible on the screen are responsible for Pakistan’s current situation. This cabal of five is responsible,” she said, which included two incumbent SC judges.
