ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)-led governing coalition on Saturday piloted legislation aimed at nipping life bans on parliamentarians, an apparent attempt to pave the way for Nawaz Sharif’s return home and the ex-PM’s participation in elections by getting around a 2017 Supreme Court bar.
The bar, clamped in the aftermath of the leak of the Panama Papers related to money laundering and other financial misdemeanours, forbids Nawaz from holding any public or party office. He has been in self-imposed exile in London since November 2019.
The legislation was passed a day after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said elder brother Nawaz would return to lead the party’s election campaign and become PM for the fourth time. The National Assembly’s current five-year term ends August 12 and holding polls within three months of it is a must under the Constitution.
Opposition parties have described the legislation passed Saturday as an attempt to get PML-N chiefNawaz a ticket tothe polls.
Two previous attempts to reverse such lifetime bans on lawmakers have failed, with the Supreme Court taking up petitions against them and measures to circumscribe its own powers. How the apex court reacts to the latest move remains to be seen.
Shehbaz had spoken about Nawaz’s return on Friday after his unopposed re-election as party president for a four-year term, telling its general council meeting that “he was waiting for his brother to lead Pakistan to progress and prosperity as PM again”. The brothers had chaired the meeting jointly, Nawaz doing so virtually.
Shehbaz told the meet that he had also delayed PML-N’s intra-party polls as he was waiting for Nawaz to return and take charge again. These polls were due by May last year, according to an extended election commission deadline, but haven’t been held yet.
Since November 2019, it has repeatedly been announced that Nawaz would come back “soon”. Over a dozen PML-N leaders had to chew their words as the deadlines given by them for Nawaz’s return turned out to be illusory.
Political commentators believe court cases, followed by sentences in a number of them, have stalled Nawaz’s homecoming.
The bar, clamped in the aftermath of the leak of the Panama Papers related to money laundering and other financial misdemeanours, forbids Nawaz from holding any public or party office. He has been in self-imposed exile in London since November 2019.
The legislation was passed a day after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said elder brother Nawaz would return to lead the party’s election campaign and become PM for the fourth time. The National Assembly’s current five-year term ends August 12 and holding polls within three months of it is a must under the Constitution.
Opposition parties have described the legislation passed Saturday as an attempt to get PML-N chiefNawaz a ticket tothe polls.
Two previous attempts to reverse such lifetime bans on lawmakers have failed, with the Supreme Court taking up petitions against them and measures to circumscribe its own powers. How the apex court reacts to the latest move remains to be seen.
Shehbaz had spoken about Nawaz’s return on Friday after his unopposed re-election as party president for a four-year term, telling its general council meeting that “he was waiting for his brother to lead Pakistan to progress and prosperity as PM again”. The brothers had chaired the meeting jointly, Nawaz doing so virtually.
Shehbaz told the meet that he had also delayed PML-N’s intra-party polls as he was waiting for Nawaz to return and take charge again. These polls were due by May last year, according to an extended election commission deadline, but haven’t been held yet.
Since November 2019, it has repeatedly been announced that Nawaz would come back “soon”. Over a dozen PML-N leaders had to chew their words as the deadlines given by them for Nawaz’s return turned out to be illusory.
Political commentators believe court cases, followed by sentences in a number of them, have stalled Nawaz’s homecoming.