ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has challenged the Election Bill 2017 in the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday.
The party has made the Federation, Nawaz Sharif, secretaries of the Senate and the National Assembly (NA) and others respondents in the petition. It has been contended that the amendment made to the Article 203 is in violation of the basic foundation of the constitution.
The petition also demanded that the prime minister and the cabinet should be stopped from taking direction from Nawaz Sharif.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Babar Awan said on Tuesday that his party will also challenge the controversial bill in the SC.
Speaking to media outside the apex court, he said that a disqualified person cannot participate in the electoral process, nor can he hold a political party’s office. The election bill, a clause of which allows a person ineligible to be a member of the parliament to head a political party, was an attack on the Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution.
Slamming the role of the government in the face of external threats, the PTI leader said it appeared that there is no government in the country. The country is being given threats on which the government is silent, he added.
Babar Awan also said that the rulers were not ready to talk about security challenges the country is facing. Indian army chief recently threatened to target Pakistan’s nuclear assets, and United States Defence Secretary James Mattis criticised the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), but Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi did not respond, he added.
Criticising the ruling party, he said it was using Punjab House, being run by tax-payers money, for its political activities. Commenting on the FATA issue, the PTI leader said that the government was dragging its feet to take steps for the merger of the region with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
