It was made very clear by the Supreme Court that it will not tolerate the violation of the Constitution as the apex judicial forum commenced a suo motu hearing on Thursday to determine who has the responsibility and authority to announce the date for elections to a provincial assembly.
A nine-member larger bench, chaired by Umar Ata Bandial, and including justices Ijaz ul-Ahsan, Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Munib Akhtar, Yahya Afridi, Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Muhammad Ali Mazhar, and Athar Minallah, presided over the case.
The hearing follows President Dr Arif Alvi’s announcement of April 9 as the election date in both provinces, which he made unilaterally after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) rejected his request for consultations on the matter.
Justice Bandial opened the hearing with a statement his court must examine three things and emphasized that time was running out for provincial elections.
Barrister Ali Zafar took the stand and sought to bring “things related to the president on record,” to which the judge responded that President Alvi had announced the election date under Section 57 of the Elections Act, 2017.
Zafar pleaded to hear their request, but the chief justice reiterated that the court had three issues to consider. He referred to the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) order of February 10, which directed the ECP to hold polls immediately, and said the court had several factors to consider.
At one point, Attorney General for Pakistan Shehzad Elahi requested time from the court. He said that issuing notices to so many people would make it difficult to prepare for the next day’s hearing. The judge responded the court would restrict itself to essential issues and hold a detailed hearing on Monday.
The chief justice stated that a suo motu notice was taken due to several factors, and that prolonged proceedings were underway in the high court while time was passing by.
