Pakistan court moved for deletion of 'N' from Nawaz Sharif's PML-N

A petition has been filed in the Peshawar High Court seeking deletion of the word 'N' from the Pakistan Muslim League-N party after conviction of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in a corruption case, according to a media report today.

The writ petition was filed by a lawyer who submitted that since the former prime minister had been convicted by the accountability court for 10 years and disqualified for life term from holding public office, the word Nawaz should be deleted from the party's name, The News reported.

The petitioner argued that there was no justification for the existence of a political party with the name of Nawaz Sharif after he was found involved in financial misappropriation and corruption by the accountability court.

He pointed out that Pakistan's founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah headed the Pakistan Muslim League after Independence for good governance, development and for the best interest of Pakistan. 

The petitioner claimed that the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif divided the party into two parts, the PML and the PML-N.

He said Nawaz Sharif was not the founder of PML but had hijacked the party and introduced his PML-N party, which, he believed, was totally wrong and against the party rules.

The petitioner said Nawaz Sharif by using the PML name with the addition of his name got a massive mandate and was elected thrice as prime minister. 

He said that Nawaz Sharif was a convicted person and the Supreme Court had declared him disqualified for life and thus, there was no justification for a political party with the name of 'N'.

The petitioner requested the court to issue a direction to the Election Commission of Pakistan to delete/expunge the word 'N' from the PML nomenclature.