By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The Chief Justice of Pakistan on Friday refused to form a full court to hear a petition filed by former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party against the election postponement in Punjab province as ongoing tussle within the judiciary intensified on Friday after another judge left the bench.
The Supreme Court’s proceedings were delayed on Friday after Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail withdrew himself after Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan did so on Thursday from the five-member bench that originally took up the PTI petition.
Thereafter, the country’s top judge Umar Ata Bandial set up a smaller three-judge bench consisting of himself, Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan, and Justice Munib Akhtar to proceed with the PTI petition.
The government requested a full court hearing, although the chief justice said it would waste time since the bench had already heard the case for three consecutive days.
“It will take time for the new judges to understand the case,” Chief Justice Bandial said.
He said the court was willing to “take a break” if the government and the opposition PTI party started negotiating over the election date. However, he also warned that the court would play its constitutional role if the political parties failed to make headway.
The development followed the approval of a bill by the upper house of parliament on Thursday to curtail the chief justice’s power to use “suo motu” authority, which allows the court to open cases on its own to address issues that it deems to be of public interest.
Ahead of Friday’s proceedings, an order was issued by the Supreme Court office, disregarding the directives of a different three-judge bench that had ordered that all cases instituted under Article 184(3) of the Constitution be postponed by stating that the bench had traveled beyond the case before it.
The elections’ watchdog postponed Punjab polls, due this month, citing security, administrative, and financial reasons, after the province’s legislative assembly was dissolved by Khan’s party in January to force the coalition government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to hold early general elections in the country.
The PTI filed the petition against the commission’s decision since the constitution requires that elections must be held within 90 days of the dissolution of an assembly.
Copyright © 2021 Independent Pakistan | All rights reserved
