Sanaullah opposes Shahbaz’s elevation to National Assembly

Islamabad, Aug 2  :  Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan has opposed the elevation of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to the National Assembly, with a belief that there are enough political and legal grounds against this step of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. 'The focus of the party will divert from its development agenda to the electoral game for the rest of the present assemblies’ term if Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, successfully delivering in the electoral base of the party, is elevated to the office of prime minister,' Mr Khan suggested to the PML-N leadership in an all-important consultative meeting in Murree yesterday. He told Dawn in reference to the apex court's decision of disqualifying Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on July 28. He claimed that the party leadership had promised to give a serious consideration to this and two legal submissions of his once Shahid Khaqan Abbasi assumed the charge as the prime minister. A practising lawyer himself, the Law Minister said he had also informed the leadership that the Supreme Court’s order could be altered as an “error of judgement”, provided a review plea against it was heard as an appeal by a larger bench, because “receivables” could not be considered assets under the Income Tax Act. He expressed the opinion that Nawaz Sharif might re-enter electoral politics and was not disqualified for life because in an almost similar case, retired Justice Iftikhar Cheema, who had won from the National Assembly constituency NA-101 (Gujranwala) in 2013 but was later disqualified by the apex court for concealing assets, had been allowed to contest the bypolls held last year. UNI