Apex Court orders to hold elections in KP and Punjab within 90 days

Supreme Court
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 could not override the Constitution.

Previously, the chief justice had formed a nine-member bench to hear the suo motu notice over the delay in the announcement of provincial elections in Punjab and K-P since their dissolution earlier this year.

At the outset of the hearing on Monday, Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi recused themselves as questions were raised on their presence on the bench.

Meanwhile, two more judges, Justice Afridi and Justice Minallah disassociated themselves from the proceedings as they expressed their opinion on the maintainability of the petitions on the matter.

During the hearing o Tuesday, Justice Mandokhail remarked that Article 48 of the Constitution states that every act and step taken by the president would be on the government's advice.

CJP Bandial seconded Justice Mandokhail's remark, saying that the deciding a date for the polls would be based on the advice under Article 48.

Moreover, President Arif Alvi's lawyer Salman Akram Raja said that his client has decided to withdraw his advice for the general elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as the province's governor had dissolved the assembly — unlike Punjab, where the governor did not.

"The president has stated that it is the right of the governor to issue the election date," Raja said.

Raja conceded that the president went beyond his constitutional powers and that he did not have the right to announce the election date in KP, adding that President Alvi gave the election date according to the constitution and law.


via Original Source

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