ISLAMABAD   -  The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Thursday deferred the hearing without any further proceedings in Senator Yousaf Raza Gilani’s Intra Court Appeal (ICA) challenging the rejections of seven votes in the Senate chairman election. 

A division bench of the IHC comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Tariq Mahmood Jahangiri conducted hearing of the ICA filed by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader and Senator Yousaf Raza Gillani against the IHC decision wherein it had turned down the PPP leader’s petition challenging the result of the elections for the Chairman Senate. 

During the hearing, Additional Attorney General Tariq Khokhar and Deputy Attorney General Arshad Mehmood Kayani appeared before the court and informed it that Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Khalid Javed Khan could not appear before the court as he was attending the meeting of judicial council and requested the bench to defer the proceedings. 

Acceding to the plea, the IHC bench adjourned the hearing till June 29 for further proceedings. 

Previously, Gilani’s lawyer Farooq H Naek had mentioned judgments of the courts of Bangladesh and London besides the Supreme Court of Pakistan and submitted their copies in the court. 

He adopted before the court that presiding officer’s decision in senate elections could be challenged in court because the President of Pakistan had appointed Muzafar Hussain Shah to preside only first session of the Senate polls. 

He added that only the chairman Senate was authorised to give ruling in the upper house instead of presiding officer. The counsel argued that the single member bench had rejected their case on the ground that the matter is related to parliamentary proceedings and that it was an internal subject of the Upper House of Parliament.