Judiciary should be held accountable for disqualifying Nawaz, Gilani as PM: Khawaja Asif

Defense Minister Khawaja Asif on Tuesday demanded that the judiciary be held accountable for disqualifying former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Yousuf Raza Gilani from public office, Aaj News reported.

In a forceful address in the National Assembly, Asif targetted the judiciary, condemning their actions that "undermined the supremacy of the parliament".

The defence minister said the judiciary has previously sacked prime ministers on minor issues.

"The juduciary hanged one of the prime ministers, and disqualified Mian Nawaz Sharif for life. This should stop here. The members of this house must protect the leader of the house, regardless of the party he represents."

He said no institution in the country has served the nation more than the parliament. The judiciary continued to undermine the sanctity of the house through its conduct and verdicts.

Khawaja Asif said the Supreme Court has, numerous times, demanded the record of the proceedings in the parliament.

“But the same court reconstituted a bench including the two judges that had previously recused themselves from hearing the case,” he said and requested the Speaker National Assembly to write a letter to the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) and demand the record of the proceedings of the court.

His statement comes hours after Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial made a comment suggesting that political parties were attempting to manipulate the judiciary in order to achieve the desired judgments.

The CJP made this comment as the Supreme Court resumed hearing the petitions challenging the law that clips the CJP's powers.

Nawaz Sharif, the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), stepped down as Prime Minister in July 2017 after the top court disqualified him from holding public office following a landmark decision on the Panama Papers case.

The five-member bench unanimously ruled to disqualify Sharif for his failure to disclose un-withdrawn receivables that constituted assets from UAE-based Capital FZE in his nomination papers for the 2013 General Election. This failure meant that he was deemed not to be "honest" and "truthful," as outlined in the Constitution.

In a similar ruling, the apex court disqualified the Pakistan Peoples Party's Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani as Prime Minister in the NA Speaker ruling case in June 2012.

As per the order read by then-chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Yousuf Raza Gilani was disqualified from his membership in parliament from April 26, the date of his conviction, and he ceased to be the Prime Minister of Pakistan.