HEARING ON ELECTIONS DELAY.

ISLAMABAD     -    The PPP, PML-N and JUI(P) Friday request­ed recusal of Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan and Jus­tice Mazahar Ali Ak­bar Naqvi in nine-mem­ber bench hearing suo moto on delay in an­nouncement of dates for elections of the Pun­jab and Khyber Pakh­tunkhwa assemblies.

The SC bench, head­ed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Umar Ata Bandial, was hear­ing the suo moto and the petitions of the Is­lamabad High Court Bar Association and the Speakers of the Punjab and KP.

Onset of the proceed­ing, a joint statement was read by PPP coun­sel Farooq H Naek re­questing Justice Ahsan and Justice Naqvi to re­cuse themselves from hearing the case. 

In the statement, it was re­quested that both the apex court’s judges “recuse themselves from hearing any matter involving Paki­stan Peoples’ Party Parlia­mentarian (PPPP), Jami­at Ulema Islam (Pakistan) (JUI-P) and their leader­ship” for the “interest of justice, fair play and to pro­tect the fundamental right to a fair trial and due pro­cess”. Naek also noted that he had not yet received a copy of the court order and requested that notices be issued to all concerned parties. The Chief Justice remarked; “we will mark everyone here present and hear arguments on Mon­day,” noting that the repre­sentatives of all four prov­inces were present in the courtroom. The PPP law­yer further objected to the inclusion of Justice Ahsan and Justice Naqvi in the bench and referred to Jus­tice Jamal Mandokhail’s statement made in the pre­vious hearing objecting to the suo moto notice. How­ever, Justice Athar Minallah said that the matter per­tained to Article 184(3) of the Constitution and ques­tioned why it should not be heard in a full court. Naek replied that he did not want to go into the de­tails but maintained that he believed that the case should be heard by a full-court bench. Justice Ban­dial remarked that “we will discuss the admissi­bility of the case first”. To this, the PPP’s counsel said that admissibility is the most important issue, as is the matter of composition and seeing how the bench was constituted. During the hearing, Awami Mus­lim League’s counsel Azhar Siddique questioned why political leaders are being allowed to defame the judi­ciary and said that this is a “serious issue”.

In his remarks, Justice Ja­mal Mandokhail said that political matters should be settled in the parliament, questioning why they do not resolve the issue of in­terpretation of the Consti­tution in the parliament. Justice Bandial said that in normal circumstances, cit­izens knocked at the door of the court “but today, the Constitution of Pakistan has knocked on our doorstep.”

The chief justice on 22-02-23 taken suo moto of the de­lay in holding polls in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, saying that there appeared to be a “lack of clarity” on the matter. The suo motu notice was taken by the top judge after President Dr Arif Alvi earlier this week uni­laterally announced April 9 as the election date in both provinces after his invita­tion for consultations on the matter was turned down by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). In the no­tice, CJP Bandial said that the SC bench would consid­er the following questions: Who has the constitutional responsibility and author­ity for appointing the date for the holding of a gener­al election to a provincial assembly, upon its disso­lution in the various situa­tions envisaged by and un­der the Constitution? How and when is this constitu­tional responsibility to be discharged? What are the constitutional responsibili­ties and duties of the feder­ation and the province with regard to the holding of the general election?