ISLAMABAD – The coalition government on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to form a full court to hear the suo motu notice taken by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial on the delay in the announcement of a date for elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The request was made in a joint statement read by lawyer Farooq H Naek, on behalf of the three parties including PPP, PML-N and JUI(F) when the nine-member bench resumed the hearing of the suo motu notice today.
The PDM lawyer had also requested Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan and Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi to recuse themselves from the nine-member bench currently hearing the case.
A nine-member bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial and also comprising Justice Ahsan, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Naqvi, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Athar Minallah, heard the case.
At the outset of today’s hearing, the attorney general told the court that they had not received the copy of the order which is why all parties did not appear today.
At this, CJP Bandial remarked that the purpose of today’s hearing was to inform the relevant authorities about the suo motu notice.
On this point, Naek came before the bench and read out the note of PPP, JUI-F and PML-N regarding their objections to Justice Ahsan and Justice Naqvi.
The lawyer said that both the judges had made their observations on the matter when the heard Ghulam Mehmood Dogar’s plea regarding his restoration.
The counsel also shared the note read out by Justice Mandokhail in yesterday’s hearing.
Naek stated that they were objecting to the two judges inclusion in the bench in the “interest of justice, fair play and to protect the fundamental right to fair trial and due process as guaranteed under Article 10A”.
On this, Justice Minallah asked the lawyer if he felt there was a need to form a full court for the case.
“Matter of election is of public [importance] there should be full court on this,” responded Naek and formally appealed for a full court to hear the suo motu notice on the delay in elections.
In the initial hearing on Thursday, the apex court issued notices to the federal government, attorney-general, election commission, advocate-generals of the four provinces, and advocate-general of the Islamabad Capital Territory.
On February 22, CJP Bandial took the notice of an apparent delay in the elections in the two provinces where the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) dissolved the legislative assemblies at the behest of party chief Imran Khan in mid-January.
