Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Friday demanded the Supreme Court (SC) form a full court bench to hear the election date case and review cases starting from the Panama case which disqualified former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
While expressing views in the National Assembly, the defence minister said the Supreme Court should find lasting solutions to the issues at hand. He questioned why some judges were not criticized and raised concerns about judges intervening in parliament’s jurisdiction.
Khawaja Asif said, “When judges intervene in the parliament’s jurisdiction we will raise the question as well. Why former justices Saqib Nisar and Asif Khosa are criticized and not Justice Nasir ul Mulk?”
On the other hand, talking about Nawaz Sharif’s lifetime disqualification in the Panama case, he said, “Rewriting the Constitution is not the judiciary’s job. This is the outcome of the way Article 63 was rewritten. The way Nawaz Sharif’s government was removed, was unfair.”
The accountability should have started from the Panama case because the establishment and judiciary had confessed that they interfered in the case even though the PTI leadership, including the party senior member Shah Mehmood Qureshi, had said on record that it was unfair to Nawaz Sharif.
Later, he requested to form a full court to hear the election date case and review cases starting from the Panama case.
