Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah on Wednesday warned of imposing governor\u2019s rule in Punjab if he was restricted from entering the province.<\/p>\n
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, he said he had already begun drafting a summary for the imposition of governor\u2019s rule, which is moved by the interior ministry, because of the kind of statements opposition political leaders had been making.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf my entry is restricted, it will be grounds for governor\u2019s rule,\u201d he asserted.<\/p>\n
The interior minister\u2019s presser comes hours after PML-Q\u2019s Chaudhry Parvez Elahi was sworn in as the Punjab chief minister following the Supreme Court verdict which declared Hamza Shehbaz\u2019s victory in the July 22 run-off election as void.<\/p>\n
President Dr Arif Alvi administered the oath to Elahi at Aiwan-i-Sadr in Islamabad. Elahi had to rush from Lahore to the federal capital after Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman refused to carry out the job.<\/p>\n
Elahi\u2019s swearing-in capped a months-long saga over the provincial chief executive that began with Usman Buzdar\u2019s resignation.<\/p>\n
During today\u2019s press conference, the minister said the SC\u2019s decision had \u201ccreated complications and destabilised the political situation\u201d because of which the rupee was tanking and the stock market was falling.<\/p>\n
Even a second-grader would interpret Article 63-A \u2014 which is related to the disqualification of lawmakers over defection \u2014 as saying that the votes of dissident lawmakers would be counted in the election, he claimed.<\/p>\n
He further stated that the SC\u2019s recent verdict contradicted the Election Commission of Pakistan\u2019s (ECP) decision to de-seat 25 dissident PTI lawmakers who had voted for Hamza in the April 16 election, which was, in turn, based on an order of the apex court.<\/p>\n
The ECP\u2019s verdict had been based on MPAs not following the instructions of the party head whereas the SC had stated the parliamentary party head\u2019s instructions should be followed, he stated.<\/p>\n
He went on to say that Hamza should have remained the chief minister since the votes of those 25 dissident lawmakers would not be subtracted from his tally in the April election.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is my opinion that the interpretation of Article 63-A will not sustain. Any lawyer will say it amounts to rewriting the Constitution. It is not the SC\u2019s authority to rewrite the Constitution and we will defend the parliament\u2019s authority,\u201d Sanaullah said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis situation is unfortunate and we want to restrict our words [\u2026] An independent, uncontroversial and impartial judiciary is any country\u2019s basic need. No country can progress without it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The interior minister said that the incumbent government did not seek to curb the judiciary\u2019s authority but wanted to \u201cregulate\u201d it.<\/p>\n
If the chief justice took suo motu notice and formed benches in consensus with the advice of fellow jurists, then letters like the one circulating since yesterday would not happen, he said, while referring to the one written by Justice Qazi Faez Isa to the Judicial Commission of Pakistan.<\/p>\n
In response to a question about whether the PML-N-led coalition government in the Centre would find it difficult to rule now that they no longer had control of Punjab, Sanaullah said: \u201cThe federal government has its own role. It is present everywhere. It has so many departments and their resources and budgets are bigger than provincial departments. This kind of conversation is being done by people who neither have intelligence nor knowledge.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe federal government is a coalition government and it is present everywhere,\u201d he emphasised.<\/p>\n
Separately, PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz also criticised the court\u2019s decision and termed it \u201cjudicial murder\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow will you justify this blatant injustice? This is judicial murder but the victim this time is justice. What have you done, chief justice?\u201d she said in a tweet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah on Wednesday warned of imposing governor\u2019s rule in Punjab if he was restricted from entering the province. Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, he said he had already begun drafting a summary for the imposition of governor\u2019s rule, which is moved by the interior ministry, because of the kind of statements […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266331,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[9869,9868,232,1446],"class_list":{"0":"post-273887","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-news","8":"tag-governor-rule","9":"tag-province-restricted","10":"tag-punjab","11":"tag-rana-sanaullah"},"yoast_head":"\n