By Naveed Naqvi
ISLAMABAD: The ruling alliance will boycott court proceedings after the Supreme Court refused to set up a full court to hear the plea on the Punjab chief minister’s election.
A three-bench court headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial turned down all petitions, filed by ruling alliance, Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), Pakistan Bar Council (PBC), several former SBCA presidents, to appoint a full bench to hear the matter of the rejection of the votes of dissenting members of Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q) in the runoff election for chief minister Punjab.
A day earlier, Hamza Shehbaz defeated PTI’s nominee Pervez Elahi in the Punjab chief minister polls when deputy speaker Dost Mazri dismissed PML-Qs 10 votes after party head Chaudhry Shujaat instructed them to vote in favour of Humza.
PTI and Elahi approached the apex court against the deputy speaker’s ruling.
The apex court decision however was termed as “unacceptable” by Pakistan’s Democratic Alliance leaders, and they held a meeting at the Prime Minister Office to chalk out their future line of action. The late-night meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
“The consultative meeting of the ruling alliance and PDM leaders continued till late night at the Prime Minister House, and the ruling alliance and PDM leaders have agreed not to back down from the full court demand,” a source said.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, PDM Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Maryam Nawaz, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, leaders of MQM, Muslim League (Q), ANP, Balochistan Awami Party, BNP and other coalition parties were present at the meeting.
Sources said future strategy has been decided in the light of the decision of the three-member bench of the Supreme Court, and all leaders have agreed to move forward with a unified strategy.
Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman said any verdict announced by the three-judge bench hearing the case would be considered partial and the government would not appear before this bench.
“The government wants no interference in its affairs and seeks a continuation of its policies for which it will also suggest parliament legislate to ensure respect to the people and judiciary’s verdicts,” Rehman said at a late-night news conference.
“We will only accept any decision of the full court, and if the institutions do not cooperate with the government, then political agitation will arise.”
The three-member bench will resume the hearing of the case at 11:30 am today.
Maryam Nawaz, PML-N vice president in a tweet, said “people now know decisions in the country are made over personal likes and dislikes”.
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