Sharif brothers' case: Supreme Court questions third party's eligibility to contest case

The Supreme Court bench hearing cases of Sharif brothers' eligibility to contest election, on Monday questioned the legal status of lawsuit filed by the government of Punjab against disqualification of PML-N president and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.
'Disqualification from contesting the elections is a personal matter, if the disqualified person does not appear in person before the court for a remedy, how can a third party (Chief Secretary, Punjab) come to the court, observed Justice Sheikh Hakim Ali. A three-member bench of the apex court comprising Justice Moosa K Leghari, Justice Sakhi Hussain Bokhari and Justice Sheikh Hakim Ali asked Advocate General Punjab, Khawaja Harris to provide constitutional proof pertaining to Punjab government's right of filing the petition.
The bench had taken up the appeal of the Federation against the verdict of Lahore High Court (LHC) which disqualified Nawaz Sharif to contest the election and had kept its decision pending against candidature of Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif till the decision of election tribunal. The case took a new turn when the bench hearing the case was requested to excuse itself from the hearing.
"For doing complete justice, it is humbly prayed that the case be sent to the chief justice for the constitution of an appropriate bench comprising judges not appointed in the aftermath of November 3, 2007 constitutional deviation", prayed the application. So far Akram Shaikh and Abdullah Khan Dogar counsels for proposers and seconder to Nawaz Sharif from NA-123 Lahore have argued for constitution of a larger bench while expressing principle of law that no man can be a judge in his own cause and any interest likely to cause bias would result in judicial disqualification.
On Monday, Khawaja Harris resumed his arguments against disqualification of Shahbaz Sharif and said that the government of Punjab was a party to the matter, therefore, had challenged the decision. In order to substantiate his argument he said that no sooner the notification of a candidate is issued, the interest of the government establishes, adding it is the Chief Secretary who represents the government. Being a bureaucrat under which law the chief secretary can defend the government, observed Justice Sakhi Hussain Bokhari.
Khawaja Harris also apprised the court that nomination papers of Shahbaz Sharif were rejected in 2002 on the allegation of fake signatures and there was no mention of default. Harris said that the tribunal in case of default can issue a show cause notice but in Shahbaz Sharif's case show cause notice was not issued which implies that the tribunal was not convinced by the allegations of default. The court adjourned the hearing till today (Tuesday).