ISLAMABAD: Defense Minister Khawaja Asif has demanded to constitute full court bench of all Supreme Court Judges to hear petitions regarding delay in elections in Punjab and KP. His statement came almost within minutes after media reports saying that during the proceedings today, SC judge Athar Minallah too suggested the formation of full court for the case related to delay in elections in Punjab and KP after the dissolution of provincial assemblies.
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Addressing the National Assembly here on Friday, Khawaja Asif said went on to say that the full court bench of the Supreme Court should review all cases starting from the Panama gate scandal, as a result of which his party supremo and former PM Nawaz Sharif was disqualified.
He said there were remarks of the judges that the court acted beyond its purview in Nawaz Sharif’s case, and that PTI leader and former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had also said that Nawaz Sharif was subjected to unfair practice.
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The Defense Minister said “the apex court had taken up an important matter and now it needed to find a solution that would prove an antidote not only to us but for the issues we are facing for decades.” He said there were several important questions before the judiciary, including the dissolution of the provincial assemblies, and the answers should come.
Khawaja Asif said “we have always stood for the independence of the judiciary as we want to run the country in accordance with the law and constitution,” adding that it was the right of the parliamentarians to raise voice when judges intrude into their domain. He further said “why former justices Saqib Nisar and Asif Khosa are criticized and not Justice Nasir ul Mulk?”
Khawaja Asif 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.”
