Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq Tuesday rejected the disqualification references against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Federal Ministers Ahsan Iqbal and Khawaja Saad Rafiq, and State Ministers Chaudhry Abid Sher Ali and Marriyum Aurangzeb, it is learnt.
According to sources, the National Assembly Speaker on Monday had already rejected the disqualification references against Minister for Defence, Water and Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Minister of State for Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD), Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, parliamentary secretaries Maiza Hamid and Mohsin Shah Nawaz Ranjha and MNAs Muhammad Talal Chaudhry, Daniyal Aziz and five others.
The sources said that National Assembly Secretariat had received all references of disqualification against MNAs of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) through post. The disqualification references were filed by lawyers from Lahore separately. The National Assembly Secretariat received the references in the second week of this month.
The sources said that Speaker National Assembly Tuesday examined and discussed disqualification references against Nawaz Sharif, Ahsan Iqbal, Khawaja Saad Rafiq, Marriyum Aurangzeb and Chaudhary Abid Sher Ali with legal team of the secretariat. The legal team of the secretariat concluded that the references are not on merit and cannot be referred to Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for further consideration and hearing since they lacked material for such consideration. The speaker didn't summon the movers and took the decision after studying them thoroughly and discussing them with a legal team.
After it, the speaker has written letters separately to the movers to inform about the rejections, the sources said. The movers contented that all the members including the Prime Minister had criticised the joint investigation team (JIT) formed by the Supreme Court in Panama Leaks case. The references described that this act was contemptuous and they had committed contempt of court; hence, they stood disqualified as members of the Parliament. When contacted, Director Media National Assembly Muhammad Mohsin Iqbal confirmed this correspondent that the speaker has rejected all disqualification references.