ISLAMABAD: Nawaz Sharif, three-time former prime minister of Pakistan, on Tuesday called for filing a reference against three top court judges, amid a row over provincial election date that has pushed the country into a constitutional tailspin. 

The comments by Sharif, who is the elder brother of PM Shehbaz Sharif, came hours after the Supreme Court nullified a decision by the election regulator to postpone polls in the Punjab province and announced elections on May 14, following days of hearings on a petition filed by ex-premier Imran Khan’s party. 

The incumbent government of PM Shehbaz previously expressed its lack of confidence in the three-member bench, led by chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, that announced the verdict, and maintained the judges were “biased” against the ruling coalition, leading to a constitutional crisis in the South Asian country already suffering from economic woes. 

In a hard-hitting press talk on Tuesday, Sharif accused the judiciary of "crippling" the government and rendering parliament "worthless," criticizing the judges for facilitating military dictators who had ousted elected governments in the past. 

"I believe that it is extremely regrettable to destroy everything by crippling the state for the love of a favored one," said the ex-premier, who was ousted by the top court in 2017 in a controversial court verdict. 

"I understand that a reference should be filed in the Supreme Judicial Council against the judges for the verdict. Today's decision is a chargesheet against them." 

Sharif, who came to power for the third time in 2013, was himself ousted by the Supreme Court through a series of court cases that culminated in his disqualification for life from public office. 

His Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, now again in power, accuses former army chief Gen (retired) Qamar Javed Bajwa and his spy master Lt Gen (retired) Faiz Hameed of orchestrating his ouster and bringing Khan to power in 2018, in connivance with the judges of the Supreme Court. 

Pakistan, a country of more than 220 million, has had a troubled history of military coups and has been ruled by military dictators, often facilitated by the judiciary, for nearly half of its 75-year history. 

"Someone is being brought into power, someone is being hanged, someone is being sentenced to prison for life, and a doctrine of necessity is devised for dictators," Sharif lamented, in a reference to punishments meted out to former premiers. 

"And the dictators who abrogate the constitution are rewarded [by the judiciary] by being empowered to amend the constitution for up to three years." 

The three-time former prime minister urged parliament to "assert" itself in the current constitution crisis. "Parliament must assert itself. If Pakistan has to survive, then parliament will have to assert itself," he said. 

The current crisis stems from a delay in elections for the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial assemblies, which were dissolved by Khan's party and allies in January to force early elections nationwide, since Pakistan historically holds the provincial and national elections together.  

According to Pakistan’s constitution, elections must be held within 90 days of the dissolution of a legislative assembly. 

After weeks of delays and political wrangling on the issue, the Supreme Court in a 3:2 verdict on March 1 ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to fulfil its constitutional obligation and announce an election schedule for Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.  

The ECP subsequently said the vote in Punjab would be held on April 30 but later said it was impossible to hold the vote in April due to security and financial concerns. It announced October 8 as the new poll date in Punjab. 

Khan’s PTI party then approached the Supreme Court and, after debating the matter for weeks, a three-member bench today announced polls in Punjab on May 14. Khan’s party welcomed the judgment, calling it ‘historic and constitutional’ and urging all other political parties to create a “conducive environment” for peaceful polls in Punjab. 

The verdict in the election delay case came days after Pakistan’s parliament separately passed a new law to curtail the powers of the chief justice amid a row between the higher judiciary and the government on the holding snap polls in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. 

The government says it is economically not viable to hold the snap elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa first and then have another general election this year in October. 

During this period, a number of top court judges also expressed their reservations over the chief justice's powers, including the ones to take suo motu notices and fix benches for difference cases, while the government demanded the top judge form a larger bench to hear the election delay case.  

Earlier in the day, PM Shehbaz described as the “murder of justice” the actions taken with regard to provincial elections in the last couple of days, while Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said the option of invoking an emergency in the country was available in the constitution.