LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz took to the social media on Wednesday to register her opposition to the Supreme Court verdict that declared her father Nawaz Sharif ineligible to head a political party. The daughter of the former prime minister changed her profile picture, replacing it with a picture of Nawaz Sharif with ‘Main Bhee Nawaz Hoon’ (I am also Nawaz) written in the background. In a series of tweets, Maryam responded to the court’s decision, saying that the court had vindicated Nawaz Sharif’s stance with its Wednesday verdict, declaring him ineligible to head a political party. Earlier in the day, Supreme Court of Pakistan ruled that a disqualified person could not lead a political party, a judgement leaving the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) without a chief. The verdict asserted that all steps taken, orders passed, directions given and documents issued by Nawaz Sharif as the party head after his disqualification in July last year were null and void. The court also directed Election Commission of Pakistan to remove Nawaz Sharif’s name as the president of his own faction of Pakistan Muslim League all relevant records. Before Maryam Nawaz, other PML-N leaders had also criticised the judgement and reiterated that Nawaz Sharif would continue to lead PML-N and ‘no court judgement can stop the party from seeking guidance from Nawaz’. “Nawaz Sharif is our leader and a court judgement can’t affect our will to seek guidance from him,” Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said in a statement.
Published in Daily Times, February 22nd 2018.
