ISLAMABAD: The three-member bench of the Supreme Court (SC) will resume hearing the review petition of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)’s regarding polls in Punjab province today.
The three-member bench comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial, Justices Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Munib Akhtar will hear the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)’s petition asking the apex court to revisit its April 4 order of holding polls to the Punjab Assembly on May 14, a date lapsed already.
The same bench had issued the order for holding elections in Punjab on May 14. A day earlier, Justice Munib Akhtar said that the rights of millions of people in the country were linked to the polls and stressed that the public interest was in holding elections within 90 days. “The rights of the people of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab are connected to polls,” he remarked.
The federal and Punjab caretaker government had submitted their responses in the case. The ECP’s lawyer said that Article 184(3) did not give the right to appeal and added that due to this, the scope of the review petition could not be limited.
“Are you arguing that a review under article 184(3) should be heard as an appeal?” asked Justice Munib Akhtar to which the lawyer replied in the affirmative. “In cases pertaining to Article 184(3), the jurisdiction of review is not limited,” Swati added.
The ECP lawyer requested the top court to issue a detailed order adding it would make things easier. On the other hand, Justice Justice Bandial remarked that the government and the ECP were serious about the proceedings, recalling that previously the government had raised objections to the bench.
“They either raised the question of a full court or the 3-4 judgment issue,” said the CJP and asked Swati why the same arguments put before the court on Tuesday were not raised earlier. “Has any other institution forced the ECP to adopt this stance?” Subsequently, the hearing was adjourned till 12pm today (Wednesday).
PTI response to ECP plea
In a response submitted by the ECP to the apex court, the Imran-led party called the ECP’s review petition “unjust” and “clearly outside its domain”. “It is totally wrong and unjustified on the part of ECP to suggest that the Supreme Court has ‘fixed’ the date for polling itself and ‘assumed’ the role of a public body,” the party said.
It argued that the SC issued the April 4 order in light of the Constitution when the ECP announced withdrawing the election programme as “neither the Constitution nor the law empowers ECP to extend the date of election beyond 90 days as provided in Article 224(2) of the Constitution”.
April 4 SC judgment
In a unanimous judgment on April 4, the three-member bench had quashed the ECP’s decision to extend the date for polls in the Punjab province from April 10 to October 8 and had fixed May 14 as the new date. The court had also directed the federal government to release Rs21 billion for elections in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and to provide a security plan to the ECP regarding the polls. However, in reports submitted to the top court in subsequent days, the Commission had said the ruling coalition was reluctant in releasing the funds. On May 3, the ECP filed its plea seeking a review of the top court’s April 4 order.
The deadlock over the holding of polls in two provinces arose after the PTI dissolved its governments in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in January this year. According to the Constitution of the country, once an assembly is dissolved prior to completing its term, general elections for the house are to be held within 90 days from the date of dissolution.
The crisis started when despite the passage of almost 40 days since the assemblies were dissolved, the Election Commission and governors in both the provinces did not give a date for elections. On February 22, the Supreme Court sprang into action by taking suo-moto notice of the delay in announcing elections for the two provincial assemblies.
This caused a long and dramatic chain of events — during which conflicts became quite visible within judges of the country’s top court — that eventually ended with the three-member bench’s verdict on April 4, ordering elections in Punjab to be held on May 14 and directing the federal government to release Rs21bn for the exercise.
