ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court today (Thursday) has reserved its decision on the presidential reference seeking legal opinion to hold Senate elections on open ballot without a constitutional amendment.
The case was heard by a five-judge larger bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Gulzar Ahmed. Lawyers representing the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) and the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) presented their arguments during today’s hearing.
The attorney for the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), Sajeel Swati, requested the bench to announce its opinion by February 28, in order to make relevant for the Senate elections which are scheduled for March 3.
During the hearing, PBC’s lawyer Mansoor Usman Awan argued that holding elections through an open-ballot system has been unprecedented in Pakistan, adding that the secrecy of casting votes is the essence of elections.
The lawyer of the Lahore High Court (LHC) Khurram Chughtai said that the federal government has no authority to seek an opinion from the court. In response, the CJP said that the reference in the court has been sent by the president of Pakistan.
Chughtai also said that the president of Pakistan has to act on the advice of the cabinet or the prime minister, on which the CJP told him to limit his arguments to the questions raised.
Hearing the case a day earlier, the CJP had remarked that it was up to the Parliament to decide whether balloting in the Senate should be open or secret.
“All parties demand transparent elections but no one is ready to take an initiative,” the CJP said. “We have been hearing from day one that the party decides which candidates to vote for.”
