ISLAMABAD: The ruling coalition has decided to boycott the hearing scheduled to be held tomorrow, Pakistan Democratic Movement’s (PDM) leadership announced on Monday after the Supreme Court rejected the government petitions to form full court bench to hear the case against Punjab Deputy Speaker’s ruling.
Earlier SC rejected the government’s petition of formation of a full court bench to hear the case of the Punjab chief minister’s election saying the court needs more legal clarification regarding the formation of a full bench to issue a verdict on the case.
Pakistan Democratic Movement leaders along with Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari addressed the media in Islamabad.
Speaking on the occasion, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs and PPP Co-Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said that when a decision is being taken about an institution then the entire bench should hear the case.
JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman said if the Supreme Court doesn’t form full a court “then we [PDM] will also reject all decisions of the judiciary as we will not appear before this three-members bench.”
“We boycott the proceeding the apex court,” Fazl announced, adding that the coalition government doesn’t want any institution to interfere in court matters.
Fazl, who is also the chief of PDM, said that the counsellors of government alliance advised the jury according to the constitution; however, the top court “instead impartially considering our demand rejected our petition.”
It should be noted that during the re-election, Mazari had decided against counting the votes of 10 PML-Q lawmakers, which were cast in Elahi’s favour, citing a letter written by PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain in which he had instructed them to vote for Hamza instead.
A three-member bench, comprising Justices Bandial, Ijazul Ahsan and Munib Akhtar are hearing the petition. During the previous hearing on Saturday, they had allowed Hamza — who was re-elected on July 22 — to remain “trustee” chief minister till Monday.
