ISLAMABAD - The ruling parties in the federal government yesterday demanded the formation of Supreme Court's full court bench to hear the suo motu notice taken over the apparent delay in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa general elections.
The plea moved by the PML-N, PPP, and JUI-F through Farooq H Naek, Kamran Murtaza, and Masoor Usman Awan also sought the exclusion of Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi.
The development comes a few days after Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial took a suo motu notice of an apparent delay in the elections of the assemblies dissolved in Punjab and KP on January 14 and 18, respectively, and also formed a larger bench to hear the case.
The bench began hearing the case on Thursday last. According to the chief justice’s statement, the bench is to assess who is eligible to issue the date for polls, the constitutional responsibility of the federation and provinces, and who will fulfil the constitutional responsibility of conducting elections and when. The petition mentioned the violation of Article 10A right of the parties involved, while also noting that Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail stated that referring the matter to the chief justice for taking suo motu under Article 184(3) was inappropriate, who deemed the action “not justified”. It added that the circumstances — as recorded in the chief justice’s note — have raised several questions of immense legal, constitutional and public importance. Therefore, the parties have requested a reconstitution of the bench to hear the titled petitions and have mentioned doing so in the best interest of justice and fairness, and to strengthen the public confidence in the country’s Supreme Court
