ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the federal coalition and PTI to sit together and develop a consensus on elections in the country by 4pm today, but at the same time asserted that it would not go back on its order fixing May 14 as the date for elections to the Punjab Assembly.
The directives were issued by a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Munib Akhtar as the apex court took up a petition seeking to hold general elections to all the national and provincial assemblies in the country simultaneously.
At the previous hearing, the court had issued notices to the PTI, PML-N, PPP, JUI-F, MQM-P, BNP-Mengal, Awami National Party, Balochistan Awami Party, PML-Q, the law secretary, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Usman Awan and Jamaat-i-Islami, asking the parties to send their senior office-bearers for today’s proceedings.
A number of political leaders including Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarar, PTI leaders Fawad Chaudhry and Shah Mahmood Qureshi, PML-N leaders Khawaja Saad Rafique and Ayaz Sadiq, PML-Q’s Tariq Bashir Cheema, MQM leader Sabir Hussain Qaimkhani, JI emir Sirajul Haq and others attended the hearing today.
At the outset of the proceeding, CJP Bandial lauded the efforts of JI’s Haq on holding a dialogue between the government and the opposition, saying that the court would also do its part in this “good deed”.
For his part, PTI’s Qureshi said that his party respected the courts and asserted that the country could only move forward by upholding the Constitution. “We are with the SC, let’s see what is the government’s stance,” he added.
At that, the petitioner’s counsel, Shah Khawar, informed the court that representatives of a number of political parties were present in the courtroom and suggested that each leader should be given a chance to speak.
The counsel also requested that elections should be held simultaneously throughout the country.
Acknowledging the presence of the political leaders, the CJP expressed his gratitude and stated that the leadership was willing to address the problem at hand.
He cautioned that relying solely on court orders to find a solution could lead to complications, but acknowledged that political parties working together could pave the way for a solution.
Justice Bandial noted that both the Ministry of Defence and the petitioner were calling for simultaneous elections across the country. He also mentioned that the attorney general had previously raised a similar point, which had unfortunately been subject to political obstruction.
The CJP noted that Farooq H. Naek, representing the PPP, had also expressed support for the same argument, but a boycott prevented progress.
The chief justice cited newspaper reports indicating that the PPP and PML-N leadership supported dialogue as a means of resolving the issue, at which Naek informed the court about the presence of Khawaja Saad Rafique, Qamar Zaman Kaira, Tariq Bashir Cheema as well as MQM, and BNP representatives.
He told the court that the ruling political alliance believed that the 90-day period for elections had passed and that the court had already extended the date for polls twice.
