A three-member bench of the Supreme Court suspended the Lahore High Court’s order against appointment of returning officers across the country. The court ordered the ECP to issue the election schedule.
The order was issued after hearing Election Commission of Pakistan’s appeal against a Lahore High Court verdict that suspended the appointment of returning officers for the upcoming general election on Friday.
The bench was led by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa and includes Justice Sardar Tariq Masood and Justice Mansoor Ali Shah. The bench took up the petition minutes after it was filed on Friday evening.
The order also called upon the petitioner, Umer Niazi, to provide an explanation as to how his order did not constitute contempt of court. It added that the LHC order had been issued in ‘undue haste’.
At the outset of the hearing, Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa clarified that he had wanted to include the seniormost judges of the court in the hearing but Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan was busy.
He added that Justice Mansoor Ali Shah had been called from home for the hearing.
CJP Isa also asked ECP’s lawyer Sajeel Swati why they were suddenly in a hurry.
The lawyer replied that time was running out to issue a schedule for elections and the Commission was trying to hold the elections as soon as possible.
Justice Isa replied that it was not a matter of trying as the elections actually had to be conducted.
Justice Masood said that the lawyer who had filed the petition in the High Court could have been using PTI’s name. He said that it needed to be examined who was trying to derail elections when the SC had issued a clear order.
When the bench asked what PTI’s problem with the district administration was, the lawyer replied that the party had said that the bureaucracy was part of the executive had been issuing MPOs.
During the hearing, Attorney General Mansoor Awan admitted that he was not aware of the petition and had only learnt when the order had been passed.
Justice Mansoor Ali Shah also observed that the appropriate course would have been to approach the SC as the LHC did not have jurisdiction to look at matters for the entire country.
ECP’s lawyer told the court that the Commission had halted the training of ROs in compliance of the LHC order. He added that the ECP had now gone over schedule as the training was not completed.
However, the bench asked why the training had been halted when it had not been required by the court order.
