ISLAMABAD: Rejecting the “double standard” of the Supreme Court, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) termed Friday’s decision another example of the infamous ‘doctrine of necessity’ in action.

The ruling party claimed that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan was judged under a different standard than former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, and party leaders hinted that they would continue to criticise the apex court in public meetings and various forums in the days to come.

The former prime minister’s daughter, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, sent out a series of tweets criticising the verdict, saying it proved that an injustice was done to her father.

“Today, the veil has been lifted from partial accountability and revenge in the name of accountability. It has been proved that the Iqama was merely an excuse to target Nawaz Sharif,” she tweeted.

“There is no doubt that Nawaz Sharif was the only target of conspiracies, sit-ins and revenge on the pretext of accountability because he was the people’s true representative,” she said.

The ruling party indicated that it would continue to contest the verdict. “This case is not yet over, as the Supreme Court has referred the issue of PTI’s controversial foreign funding to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP),” a despondent Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb told reporters after the verdict was announced.

Displeased with the verdict that favoured Imran Khan but disqualified his Secretary General Jahangir Tareen, she said: “We are astonished to see two scales of justice for the same law.”

She said Nawaz Sharif was ousted merely for possessing an Iqama (work permit), but Imran Khan was let off the hook even when he admitted to concealing his offshore firm.

“A person who is running his party and staging sit-ins with money from Jews and Hindus will have to face the ECP,” she said, in a statement that prompted a widespread backlash over social media.

The information minister claimed that the verdict in Imran Khan’s case contradicted the apex court’s earlier decision in the Panama Papers case.

PM’s Spokesperson Musaddiq Malik said the ruling party would not sit by idly and would continue to raise its voice against the decision.

When asked about the court’s decision in the Hudaibya Paper Mills appeal, Mr Malik said it was a bid to balance the impact of the decision that benefited Imran Khan. “What was the compulsion that the decision on the Hudaibya Paper Mills’ appeal should be made public on the same day as the verdict in Imran Khan’s case,” he asked.

He said the decision was given on the basis of the “doctrine of necessity”, which had been adopted several times in the past, to the country’s detriment.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2017