ISLAMABAD: A five-member bigger bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa will announce its reserved verdict on the Election Fee of Pakistan’s (ECP) attraction in Punjab election tribunals case on September 30 (Monday).
The bench had reserved the decision on the Punjab election tribunals’ case earlier this week.
Alongside CJP Isa, the bench contains Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi.
The highest court docket had additionally ordered the highest electoral authority to make the tribunals practical for listening to the February 8 nationwide polls-related petitions.
The matter entails the authority to represent election tribunals which have been some extent of rivalry between the LHC and the ECP for months.
The difficulty arose first when the ECP, on February 14, sought a panel of serving judges from the LHC for election tribunals.
The then LHC chief justice nominated two judges on February 20 which was adopted by the nomination of one other six judges by the CJ on April 14.
Out of those six nominated judges, two have been notified by the ECP on April 26.
Nonetheless, the electoral physique then raised objections to the extra names for the appointment to Rawalpindi and Bahawalpur election tribunals.
This, nevertheless, was denied by the LHC chief justice with the excessive court docket’s registrar calling on the electoral physique to inform the election tribunals consisting of the judges nominated by the CJ.
On Might 29, Justice Shahid Karim ordered the electoral physique to nominate six extra judges, nominated by the LHC chief justice, as election tribunals for listening to election petitions relating to the overall elections and stated that the notification could be deemed to have been issued in case of the ECP’s failure to conform by the court docket’s orders.
The electoral physique, whereas refusing to accede to the excessive court docket’s registrar’s demand, stated that if it went via with notifying the election tribunals it might imply that they have been actually solely appointed by the LHC CJ and never because of consultations between the ECP and the chief justice — which primarily could be a violation of Part 140(3) of the Elections Act.
The then LHC Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad then constituted eight election tribunals for listening to circumstances associated to the February 8 polls — a transfer which was then challenged by the ECP within the apex court docket.
The dispute owes its origins to the amendments made to the Election Act 2017 relating to which judges could possibly be a part of election tribunals.
It’s noteworthy to say right here that President Asif Ali Zardari — on July 9 — accepted the Election (Modification) Invoice 2024, empowering the electoral watchdog to nominate retired judges of excessive courts to election tribunals.
Beneath the modification to the Elections Act, 2017, the ECP wouldn’t want session with the respective chief justices for the appointment of retired judges as election tribunals.
The matter ended up within the apex court docket which on July 4 suspended the LHC’s resolution forming further election tribunals in addition to the ECP’s April 26 notification.
