ISLAMABAD: The federal government today approached the Supreme Court seeking to withdraw its order that suspended PML-N leader Ishaq Dar’s Senate membership.
The government moved an application requesting the apex court to allow it to become party to a petition that challenged Dar’s election as a senator on a technocrat seat from Punjab in 2018.
The application states that the Supreme Court suspended the notification of the PML-N leader’s election, due to which he has been unable to take oath, depriving the upper house of Parliament a public representative.
It says the president recently promulgated an ordinance fixing a deadline of 60 days for elected representatives to take the oath.
The government also filed a separate application seeking early hearing of the case.
Dar was elected as a senator on a technocrat seat from Punjab in 2018. He could not take oath due to his stay in London. However, the SC suspended his membership over his failure to appear in court on May 8, 2018.
The federal government’s this move is aimed at getting elected Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin as Senator before his departure to Washington on 12 Oct for talks with IMF to secure remaining one billion dollars from $6 billion bail out package.
Worth mentioning is that the six-month term of Finance Minister will expire on Oct 16 and if the government did not get him elected as Senator before that date, he will lose his ministerial portfolio automatically.
