Only parliament has the authority to amend lifetime disqualification law: Aitzaz Ahsan

PPP leader says ruling party using political pressure to influence judicial decisions on Sharif family

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Aitzaz Ahsan has said that only the parliament has the authority to amend laws related to lifetime disqualification of lawmakers, Express News reports.

Talking to the media in Islamabad on Wednesday, Senator Chaudhry Aitizaz Ahsan was of the opinion that only the parliament could make changes to the law.

"The ruling of a fourteen-member top court bench in the Asfandyar Wali case can serve as a legal reference in this regard," noted Ahsan.



According to the senator, the Supreme Court advised the parliament to reduce the amount of time a person is liable to serve in lifetime disqualification from 21 years to 10 years in the Wali case.

"The parliament acted on the suggestion and reduced the number of years to ten. The court can advise the parliament again if it feels the need to," he added.

The PPP leader also addressed the current political turmoil within the ruling PML-N, saying that the Maryam group of the party wanted to pressurize the judiciary for a ruling in Sharif's favour.

"Their hopes have gone up since the verdict in the Hudaibiya and Orange Line Train cases. Following the former premier, even his little protegees have started attacking the judges."



"Even Talal Chaudhry has referred to the current court as 'PCO judges', and has asked for them to be removed from their posts," Ahsan remarked.

Aitzaz Ahsan told the reporters that the PML-N wanted to reduce the lifetime disqualification sentence to very few years using political antics.

"They want the disqualification of Shairf to end with the tenure of the current assembly," the senator opined.