Memogate case: PML-N to remain adamant on judicial role in inquiry

Party will threaten government with en masse resignations if inquiry commission not cooperated with.

LAHORE:

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) doesn’t like what it sees going on in the memogate case being heard by the Supreme Court – and it doesn’t plan on backing off on the matter.

One of the petitioners in the case, the party held a high-level meeting at Raiwand on Friday, wherein the progress of the case and a number of options were discussed.

Sources in the party told The Express Tribune that it was felt that the replies filed in the case by the military and the government conceal some facts. It was added that the party would move the court to form a high-powered inquiry commission – headed by a ‘strong’ sitting judge, while a retired judge will be sought for the role of special prosecutor.

To ensure that the commission is effective in its dealing of the case, sources said that the party had decided in principle that, if the government did not cooperate with the body, the PML-N would resign en masse from the assemblies.

Opinions in the party

According to PML-N’s Central Joint Secretary Engineer Khurram Dastgir, Gen Kayani’s and Lt Gen Pasha’s replies are the beginning of the ‘game’. He said that the replies of the government and the military show that the two are not on the same page.  He, too, stressed on the party’s push for a commission.

Regarding the government’s stance that the parliamentary committee on national security is already investigating the matter, he said that the PML-N will argue that both the commission and the committee should work in parallel. The court’s function is to probe the criminal aspect of the case while the committee’s function is to inquire about constitutionality.

Dastgir said that, if the commission finds the president of the country involved in the matter, the PML-N would move a resolution under Article 47 of the Constitution. He added that if government does not cooperate with the court, PML-N’s agitation will force the government to be dissolved.

Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan said that the PML-N does not have any authentic proof of President Asif Zardari’s illness to provide sufficient ground for impeachment on health grounds. He said that when Zardari was first elected president, the PML-N did consider moving the court - but then refrained.

PML-N’s Deputy General Secretary Ahsan Iqbal said that PML-N would not seek anyone’s resignation – but just wanted the real players behind the memogate scandal to be revealed. The perpetrators should then be charged and punished under the law. Resignations do not achieve desired goals, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 18^th, 2011.