(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) The crucial point in the controversy at hand is a closed door meeting between the prime minister and the army chief observed Justice Dost Mohammed Khan.
Islamabad — Judges on a three-member bench the Supreme Court hearing petitions seeking disqualification of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif have said the appearance of the army chief as key witness would be required to ascertain whether the premier had lied while denying that he had asked Gen. Raheel to play any role for resolving the current political impasse.
“The crucial point in the controversy at hand is a closed door meeting between the prime minister and the army chief” observed Justice Dost Mohammed Khan.
The bench had taken up three identical petitions moved by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) leader Ishaq Khakwani Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and lawyer Gohar Nawaz Sindhu requesting the court to order disqualification of the prime minister for allegedly falsely stating in a joint session of parliament on August 29 that the government had not asked the army to mediate and become a guarantor between the government and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf and the Pakistan Awami Tehreek to end the current political standoff.
Justice Dost Mohammed said it would be very difficult for the court to decide the matter unless some tangible evidence was brought before it. And the primary evidence in the case he added was the witness or at least the affidavit of the army chief because he was the only person who could confirm or deny the version on which the petitioner was agitating especially when the prime minister himself was the respondent in the case and whose disqualification was being sought.
Sindhu pointed out that a military spokesperson stated that it was the government which had asked the army chief to mediate between the government and the protesting parties.
The court noted that prima facie the joint sitting of parliament reposed complete confidence in the prime minister. If the prime minister had to be disqualified for telling a lie because he was not sagacious then what would be the fate of other members of the National Assembly and Senate who reposed confidence in him he asked.
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