SC asks for transcript of Rana Sanaullah’s lawmaker abduction remarks

Supreme Court has requested the text of the press conference held on July 18 by Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb in which the former remarked about legislators disappearing before the Punjab chief minister’s election.

On Monday, during a news conference with Marriyum Aurangzeb, Rana Sanaullah warned that they would not let Parvez Elahi become the CM easily.

He asked how could the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have its chief minister if five to seven parliamentarians did not show up on the voting day.

Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid Leader Pervaiz Elahi filed a plea on Tuesday, which was considered by a two-judge panel consisting of Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan on Wednesday.

Pervaiz Elahi’s attorney Faisal Fareed requested the court to file contempt charges against Sanaullah, Aurangzeb, and PML-N leader Attaullah Tarar at the hearing today.

He said that they had disregarded the Supreme Court’s ruling from July 1 by organizing “run-off votes” for the Punjab chief minister’s position on July 22 and that “Hamza Shehbaz remain within the bounds of the Constitution and the law without occurrence of political opponent harassment or witch-hunt”.

The attorney also requested that the court schedule a hearing for the petition.

Justice Ahsan demanded a transcript of the press conference in court after remarking that the petitioner was “merely repeating a newspaper item”.

The court additionally noted that the matter will be scheduled for hearing when the text was filed.

The petition claims that the interior minister’s statement “abuses, interferes with and obstructs the process” of the court because it prevents the implementation of the court’s order, amounts to creating a constitutional gap or anomaly, and keeps the people of Punjab from having adequate representation and government.

According to a local media report, PML-N has allegedly been trying to either “detain” a few PTI MPAs or entice some of them so that they do not vote on the day of the election.