Court reserves decision on PML-N leader’s acquittal plea

Capt Safdar in support of conducting elections within 90 days after dissolution of NA as stipulated by Constitution

LAHORE:

Captain (retd) Muhammad Safdar said on Thursday that former premier and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif was the only leader who can “improve Pakistan’s fate and pull it out from the current problem”.

He, however, supported the stance of conducting elections within the stipulated time of 90 days from the dissolution of the National Assembly.

The statement came amid divided opinions about the date of the coming general elections.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chair Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has repeatedly demanded that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) hold the election within the constitutional timeframe of 90 days.

The ECP, however, insists on the voting after fresh delimitation of constituencies on the basis of the new census. The fresh delimitation process required a 120-day time period. The election schedule could be announced after that, which would spread over 54 days.

The PML-N has been saying all along that the elections should be held on the basis of new constituencies.

Safdar made the remarks while talking to the media outside a district court where he appeared for a hearing of his acquittal applications.

As the proceedings commenced, the petitioner’s counsel Advocate Khawar Malik argued that “stories in both FIRs were nothing but concocted merely to humiliate Captain (retd) Safdar”.

He contended that the PML-N leader had nothing to do with these cases adding that he was implicated merely to be humiliated and the FIRs are “clear evidence of the political victimisation”. He further argued that before inserting 124-A of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) in the FIR it is necessary to get permission from the deputy commissioner.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th, 2023.