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The PML-N government seems to have reinvented its strategy of criticising the higher judiciary. It has done so with a view to pre-empting contempt of court proceedings. Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has made a beginning in this regard.

Speaking in a largely deserted the National Assembly the other day, he urged the legislators to debate the role and constitutional limits of the institutions and supremacy of the parliament to avoid any sort of confrontation that may cause harm to the country. To explain why and how parliament is 'supreme', he advances an argument that parliament is a representative of 207 million people. In other words, he emphasizes that numbers do matter. Although his concerns that politicians are described by court as "thieves, robbers and Godfathers" are quite legitimate, his demand that the constitution defines limits of all the institutions and this must be abided by all betrays PML-N lack of confidence in its strategy of rebuking judges publicly. Nawaz Sharif and some other PML-N leaders are trying every possible course of action to brighten their party's prospects in the upcoming general elections. Unfortunately, however, judiciary-bashing happens to be their most effective tool.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2018


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