• Nawaz calls party leaders’ meeting
• Asif terms SC ruling a ‘political decision’
• Azma says verdict introduced a ‘super doctrine of necessity’

LAHORE: The Sup­reme Court’s decision on reserved seats has prom­pted the ruling PML-N leadership to convene a high-level meeting on Monday to discuss their future line of action.

Some party leaders, including Defence Minister Khawaja Asif and Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari, expressed their disappointment and frustration with the verdict, all­e­ging that certain judges may have favoured Imran Khan’s PTI.

However, the broadcast media refrained from airing parts of the press conferences at which the PML-N leaders had criticised the judges, possibly due to the notices recently served by the apex court on several TV news channels for broadcasting Senator Faisal Vawda’s controversial remarks about two senior judges.

Both the ministers’ pressers brought back the memories of times when the PML-N leaders would launch attacks on some judges of the SC during the tenure of then-CJP Umar Ata Bandial.

On Saturday, the PML-N leaders said that the SC’s verdict on reserved seats demonstrated “love for former prime minister Imran Khan”.

While Ms Bokhari hinted that the PML-N might not go for filing a review in this case, Khawaja Asif said the party might consult its allies whether to file a review or not on Monday.

The Supreme Court on Friday had declared Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) eligible for seats reserved for women and minorities, dealing a serious blow to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s ruling coalition.

“Yesterday (Friday) was the black day. The SC’s verdict demonstrates the love of Immi (Imran Khan). Begumaat won and the Constitution lost,” Ms Bokhari. She also targeted a couple of Supreme Court judges who were part of the 13-member bench that announced the verdict on reserved seats.

Upon asking whether she had no fear of contempt of court like that of Faisal Vawda and Mus­tafa Kamal, Ms Bokhari said PTI’s Raoof Hasan and Omar Ayub could say anything but when “we say something (against the judges) action is taken against us”.

She then cited examples of PML-N’s Talal Cha­­udhry and Nehal Has­hmi who were disqualified by the apex court for their tirade against judges. The minister expressed surprise over award of reserved seats to the PTI and asked how could the Sunni Itte­had Council lawmakers be asked to submit fresh affidavit to join the PTI.

“The SC’s decision has opened the door of floor crossing. The way reserved seats have been doled out to the PTI by the SC, these could have been given to any party of neighbouring India and Bangladesh,” she lambasted. She said the PTI’s election mistakes were corrected by the judges, adding that the apex court verdict had introduced a “super doctrine of necessity”.

She also said that there seemed to be no role of intelligence agencies in judicial matters.

“The SC’s verdict also shows that there was no interference of intelligence agencies or it can also be inferred that the intelligence agencies did not know how to interfere,” she claimed.

Ms Bokhari also talked about the possibility of conspiracy under which the judges might have been made to believe that CJP Isa was being given extension and they fell to that conspiracy.

“The chair is dear to everyone,” she added.

Khawaja Asif called it a political decision, saying the PTI-backed candidates had submitted an affidavit of joining the SIC.

“Now they will submit another affidavit to join the PTI and going by that law a woman is permitted to contract two nikah at the same time. At the moment the country is gripped by Tehreek-i-Insaf mode,” Mr Asif said on X.

Meanwhile, PML-N president Nawaz Sharif, who has been in Murree, has called a meeting of party’s senior leaders including Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz on Monday.

Mr Sharif is also reportedly not happy over the SC verdict and may come up with a strategy to deal with the fallout of the decision.

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2024