Sharif won’t challenge disqualification

PAKISTAN: Ex-Pakistan premier Nawaz Sharif will not appeal against disqualification from elections because he regards all judges appointed by President Pervez Musharraf as illegal, a spokesman said Tuesday.

A court in Lahore on Monday barred Sharif, a leading partner in the ruling coalition and the man ousted by Musharraf in a bloodless military coup in 1999, from standing in by-elections on Thursday.

Protests by Sharif’s supporters erupted in several cities on Monday night after the ruling, which came as a major blow to Sharif’s goal of re-entering parliament and possibly becoming premier for a third time.

“Nawaz Sharif and the Pakistan Muslim League-N (his party) are not going to make an appeal before the so-called top court,” party spokesman Siddqul Farooq told AFP.

“It is our principled stand that we do not recognise the present supreme court as a constitutional court.”

Musharraf sacked Pakistan’s chief justice and dozens of other senior judges under a state of emergency in November when it looked like the supreme court would overturn his victory in a presidential election the previous month. He then hand-picked new judges to take their place.

On Monday, Lahore High Court accepted challenges by candidates due to stand against Sharif in Thursday’s by-election which argued that people convicted of criminal charges could not contest elections.

Sharif and his younger brother Shahbaz, who is chief minister of Punjab province, were also not allowed to take part in general elections in February due to criminal convictions dating back to a 1999 coup.

Farooq said the PML-N would raise the issue with the senior coalition partner, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) of slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

The two parties defeated Musharraf’s allies in the parliamentary elections but have been riven by differences over reinstating the sacked judges and over impeaching Musharraf.

“This makes an immediate case for peaceful protest demonstrations and we will prefer to put this case before 160 million Pakistanis,” Farooq said.

Islamabad, Tuesday, AFP