ISLAMABAD: As expected, ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has moved a petition in the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) challenging former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz’ appointment as Vice President of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
Last Friday, PML-N president and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif had made a large-scale reshuffle of party’s office-bearers and issued a new list according to which Maryam Nawaz was named as the vice president of the party.
This is first time, Maryam has been considered for some important party post.
Earlier, she in her capacity as daughter of the deposed prime minister led rallies and addressed public gatherings criticising the present PTI government and its leadership.
Soon after her name appeared as one of the 16 vice presidents of the party, PTI’s vice-chairman and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had indicated his party’s opposition to her and to challenge her nomination in the court.
In their application, PTI’s members of national assembly (MNAs) Farrukh Habib, Malika Bukhari, Kanwal Showzib and Javeria Zafar made the plea that Maryam Nawaz’ appointment was in stark violation of the Constitution and election laws.
Maryam is a convict in accountability court’s July 6, 2018 decision in the Avenfield Properties corruption reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
The petitioners have submitted that the AC judged handed 7-years jail term for abetment after she was found “instrumental in concealment of the properties of her father” and 1 year for non-cooperation with the bureau.
The applicants have given references to the Supreme Court’s decisions in which it has been clearly defined no convict person can hold any public/party office unless he/she gets that verdict overturned by challenging it in some superior judicial forum.
In the light of the apex court’s verdicts, Maryam Nawaz cannot be named for any party office.
In their petition, the PTI MNAs also raised the question how it was possible that members of the assembly fully abide by Article 62 and Article 63 of the Constitution, but the “people who control them don’t”.
It further added that the Supreme Court had disqualified her father, Nawaz Sharif, from his party position as well on the same ground of being convicted in the corruption reference and “the ECP should declare her appointment to be null and void.”
While speaking to media after submitting the petition to the ECP, Farrukh Habib said there was a lack of leadership in the PML-N and they wanted the law of Raiwind to prevail in their party not the law of Election Commission.
