Wednesday, August 23, 2017
By
GEO NEWS

Won't support amendments to Article 62, 63 to 'save one person': PPP

By
GEO NEWS
|

ISLAMABAD: Opposition Leader Khursheed Shah has said the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) will not support any amendment to Articles 62, 63 of the Constitution just to ‘save one person’.

Talking to the media on Wednesday, the PPP leader said any such amendment become questionable if it is undertaken to save someone, adding that such amendments get challenged in court as well.

“There was no [support from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz] when we wanted to amend both article,” said Shah. He explained that the PPP merely wanted to restore PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s constitution, saying, “we wanted to expunge clauses introduced by Gen (retd) Ziaul Haq.

Shah said the government wants to amend the articles to save Nawaz Sharif, adding that any such amendment will be supported ‘when it is time’.

“PPP will never support such an amendment to save one individual,” he vowed.

Then prime minister Nawaz Sharif was disqualified by the Supreme Court under Article 62 (1)(f) of the Constitution in the landmark July 28 judgment of the Panama Papers case.

On Tuesday, Law Minister Zahid Hamid asked for Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution to be amended during the National Assembly session.

The NA committee on Electoral Reforms will recommend amendments to the articles, said Hamid.

The law minister added that Article 62 should be amended as a time period for disqualification of a parliamentarian should be specified, adding that the time period for disqualification should be less than five years.