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            Way cleared for PML-N chief’s return to parliament

By Nasir Iqbal

PESHAWAR: Leaders of PML (N) Women Wing celebrating the SC verdict in Sharif Brothers’ case on Tuesday. - F.P. photo

Supreme Court’s verdict means Nawaz Sharif will be able to participate in the next general elections. — AFP

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court overturned on Tuesday its own verdict barring the Sharif brothers from contesting elections and said it had been passed ex-parte.

The decision paved the way for former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to return to parliament after nearly 10 years.

‘The June 23, 2008, judgment of the Lahore High Court and the Feb 25 order of this court are ex-parte on account of which certain factual aspects and legal provisions were not brought to the notice of the court and, therefore, were not considered, leading to miscarriage of justice which has been found by us to be errors apparent on the face of record warranting review,’ a five-judge bench ruled unanimously in a packed courtroom.

The bench comprised Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk, Justice Mohammad Moosa K. Leghari, Justice Sheikh Hakim Ali and Justice Ghulam Rabbani.

Interestingly, two of the judges, Justice Moosa Leghari and Justice Hakim Ali, also sat on the three-member bench that had on Feb 25 disqualified the Sharif brothers from holding any public office and contesting election. As a result, Shahbaz Sharif had lost the office of Punjab chief minister. He was restored after the Supreme Court suspended the judgment on March 31 while hearing review petitions against the Sharif brothers’ electoral ineligibility.

With the last hitch lifted, Mr Nawaz Sharif can now contest a by-election from NA-123, Lahore, where his nomination papers were accepted by the returning officer on May 5 last year.

Election Commission Secretary Kanwar Mohammad Dilshad told Dawn that the schedule for by-election in the constituency would be announced soon.

According to PML-N sources, Mr Sharif may also contest by-election from NA-55, Rawalpindi, which has fallen vacant after the resignation of Haji Pervez Khan.

‘This is a victory of justice and truth,’ PML-N’s senior leader Javed Hashmi said, adding that it was a day of jubilation for the nation. The party’s information secretary, Ahsan Iqbal, said the judgment would strengthen democracy.

There was a pin drop silence in the packed courtroom while judgment was being read out.

A number of PML-N leaders, workers and supporters present in the Supreme Court raised slogans in favour of the judiciary and Sharif brothers’ restoration.

Authored by Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, the short order acknowledged that one of the onerous functions of the Supreme Court was to protect the Constitution and to sustain democracy.

It said: ‘Democracy is not merely holding of periodical elections or of governance by legislative majority. It is a multi-dimensional politico-moral concept epitomising the abiding values of equality, human dignity, tolerance, enjoyment of fundamental rights and due process of law.

‘Article 4 (rights of individuals to be dealt in accordance with law) of the Constitution is a restraint on the legislative, executive and judicial organs of the state to abide by the rule of law. Abdication of this awesome responsibility by any organ leads to arbitrariness and injustice. These in our estimation are canons of substantive democracy embodied in our Constitution which we have kept in view while exercising the power of judicial review.’

About the presidential pardon to Nawaz Sharif under Article 45 of the Constitution, the verdict said: ‘The pardon stood admitted by the federal government through the statement made by the deputy attorney general both before the high court and the apex court and even by Attorney General Sardar Mohammad Latif Khan Khosa, who appeared in the review proceedings.

‘To allege that it is conditional or qualified requires deeper probe and entails factual enquiry. Similarly, the questions whether petitioners were hit by Article 63(h) (disqualifications) and (l) of the Constitution or by section 99 of the Act could also not have been decided by the high court or by this court in writ jurisdiction.’

Referring to issues related to unpaid loans, contempt of court and filing of false affidavit, the order said these were disputed questions of fact which could not have been adjudicated upon in the proceedings under Article 199 of the Constitution and even the material placed before the court was not sufficient.

The short order set aside judgments of both the high court and the Supreme Court, but restored the order of the returning officer accepting nomination papers of Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif and the June 1, 2008, order of the chief election commissioner dismissing election appeals against the Sharif brothers.

DAWN: Wednesday, 27 May, 2009