ISLAMABAD  -  Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa yesterday advised PTI lawyer Latif Khosa to abstain from levelling accusations against a constitutional body unless substantiated by evidence.

The CJP gave these remarks during hearing the PTI’s petition, seeking contempt charges against the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for purportedly violating the SC’s directives of December 22, aimed at ensuring a level playing field for the party in the elections. Heading the bench along with Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Musarrat Hilali, CJP Isa stressed the importance of supporting allegations with proof.

Irked at the PTI counsel’s ‘politicisation’ of the matter, the CJP asked Khosa if he wanted the apex court to rule that all the nomination papers filed by his party’s candidates must be accepted.

“What is wrong with the [ECP] report?” Justice Isa asked the counsel. The top judge asked Khosa to submit in writing anything that he thought was wrong with the ECP Punjab chief secretary’s written reply, submitted to the SC. “Do not make verbal accusations,” Justice Isa cautioned.

“Do not beat around the bush. Tell us exactly what you seek from the SC. If there is any state institution you don’t have faith in, tell us… we will pass a suitable order in light of that,” the CJP observed.

“Spare us your grievances,” Justice Isa said. Khosa replied that “the whole country knows how we are being discriminated against”. At this, the CJP stated that the SC was itself telling the world about it by airing the proceedings live. Hamid Khan, also representing the PTI, prayed to the chief justice to hear the party’s case pertaining to the revocation of its electoral symbol on January 10, to which Justice Isa obliged, fixing the case for hearing on the date suggested. “The PTI has submitted the most petitions and they are being heard as well. But you also want to get cases fixed and don’t want to bother with attending the hearing,” said the top judge. Adjourning the matter till January 15, the SC directed the PTI counsel to submit a written response on the reports submitted by the ECP and its Punjab chief secretary. It is to be mentioned here that the ECP a day earlier had submitted a response to the Supreme Court stating that 76 per cent of the PTI’s nomination papers for the upcoming elections had been accepted, contradicting the party’s assertions of an uneven playing field.