ISLAMABAD (AFP) — Pakistan's Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the postponement of a crucial parliamentary by-election while it decides whether to let former premier Nawaz Sharif stand in the poll.
The government lodged an appeal earlier in the day against a lower court ruling that barred Sharif, a key partner in the country's ruling coalition, from contesting Thursday's vote in the eastern city of Lahore.
Sharif would be able to seek a third term as prime minister if he wins the seat and it would also put him in a better position to challenge President Pervez Musharraf, the man who ousted him in a coup nine years ago.
"We are staying the election with immediate effect," said judge Musa Leghari, the head of a three-member panel hearing the case, setting the next hearing for June 30.
He ordered Sharif to appear in court then, saying that the court could have made a decision on Wednesday "but one of the main difficulties is the person who is contesting elections is not before us."
Sharif's lawyer however said he would not come because he opposes judges appointed by Musharraf under a state of emergency last November, when the president sacked the chief justice and dozens of other judges.
"Nawaz Sharif will not appear before the Supreme Court. I have submitted this before that he has a principled position that he will not appear before these judges," lawyer Akram Sheikh told reporters outside court.
"The courts are bound to give relief and dispense justice, no matter if someone is able to appear before it or not."
The Lahore High Court ruled on Monday that Sharif, the head of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party (PML-N), was ineligible to stand because of previous criminal convictions relating to events surrounding the coup.
His party said he would not appeal, but Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Tuesday that the government would do so because Sharif was part of the coalition that defeated Musharraf's allies in general elections in February.
Gilani is a member of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto. Bhutto was once Sharif's bitter enemy but joined forces with him against Musharraf after they both returned from exile last year.
Ahead of Wednesday's hearing, deputy attorney general Raja Abdur Rehman said that under the Pakistani constitution, poll disputes must be heard by an election tribunal and not a high court such as the one in Lahore.
"High courts have no jurisdiction to hear such cases," Rehman told AFP.
The government's appeal was apparently aimed at consolidating the shaky coalition between the Bhutto and Sharif parties.
The two are at odds over the possible impeachment of Musharraf and over the coalition's failure to honour its vow to restore judges sacked by the president.
Sharif has called for the embattled Musharraf to be ousted from office and to be tried for treason.
MPs from Sharif's party walked out of parliament on Tuesday in protest at Monday's court decision, while supporters burned an effigy of Musharraf in the central city of Multan.
"We believe that Nawaz Sharif fully qualifies to contest the election. It was a conspiracy hatched by the court at Lahore as it tried to prevent Sharif from running," PML-N spokesman Siddiqul Farooq told AFP.
Farooq urged the PPP to live up to the promise to reinstate the judges "in true letter and spirit and without further delay in order to foil conspiracies which may threaten the coalition."
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