Apex Court orders to hold elections in KP and Punjab within 90 days
The Supreme Court ordered on Wednesday that elections in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) should be held in the next 90 days with the chief justice saying that 'democracy cannot exist without assemblies'. The verdict was split 3-2 with Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail dissenting with the majority verdict. Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar supported the ruling. The dissenting note maintained that the suo motu was not maintainable. The bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial concluded the two-day-long proceedings in the suo motu case on Tuesday. Concluding the hearing, the bench reserved the verdict and said it would be announced before 11am Wednesday (today). During Tuesday's hearing, the chief justice said that they were not there to support any side but to support the Constitution. "We cannot abandon the Constitution," he said, adding that they ...